In this new edition of Side Quest Sessions, we dive into one of the most crucial pillars that keeps a video game creative agency running smoothly: Ecommerce. At WAYPOINT, Ecommerce is not just about moving products from point A to point B; it’s about building systems that can scale, creating processes that ensure quality, and delivering an experience that reflects the passion behind the games we love. Watch the full episode 6 here.

As a video game creative agency based in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, WAYPOINT has spent years perfecting the balance between creativity and logistics. While much of the attention in the digital marketing in gaming industry often goes to flashy campaigns, influencer activations, or live events, Ecommerce quietly powers the backbone of success. Without it, no video game marketing campaign or collectible launch would ever reach the players who care the most.

In this episode, Sean is joined by Juan Rivera, Head of Ecommerce at WAYPOINT. Together, they explore the often-overlooked side of running a creative services agency: supply chain management, logistics, inventory reporting, and the people who make it all happen. From scouting reliable production partners overseas to maintaining accurate royalty reports for licensors, Ecommerce is a world full of moving parts.

One of the unique advantages WAYPOINT has built into its operations is a direct, on-the-ground presence at manufacturing sites. By having team members who can physically inspect production lines and perform quality checks, we help ensure smooth workflows while preventing costly mistakes and unpleasant surprises. It’s a level of detail that few entertainment marketing agencies offer—and a key part of what makes WAYPOINT stand out in the industry.

Beyond sourcing and production, the Ecommerce team is also responsible for generating accurate reports on thousands of products sold each month. This ensures licensors are properly compensated and helps keep the business side running transparently. Add in social media management, HR support for new talent, and a growing internal structure, and it becomes clear how Ecommerce integrates with the bigger picture of a video game creative agency like WAYPOINT.

This episode is not just about processes, though. It’s about people. From building strong internal teams to fostering long-term relationships with clients and licensors, Ecommerce success depends on talent, trust, and vision. As Sean and Juan discuss, keeping a skilled, motivated team and ensuring clients never look bad in front of their bosses is at the heart of how WAYPOINT operates.

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If you prefer reading here is a full transcription of the episode:

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Sean:

Hello everybody, good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are. My name is Sean and I am here with our esteemed guest and my colleague Juan Rivera, our head of e-commerce. What's up, Juan?

Juan:

Hi, Sean. Hi, everyone. Glad to be here.  

Sean:

So, today we're talking about one of our favorite subjects, which is e-commerce.

And so, as we've said in many other videos, Waypoint is a creative production company and we do three different things in no particular order. Those are creatives, where we make all the marketing assets for video game companies, like trailers or, for example, key art or packaging design, you name it. The other thing we do is collectibles, where we make physical items, whether it's a huge mass production quantity of a figurine or whether it's just a one-off unit of a special item or a replica from a video game. And then third and not least is e-commerce. And that's what we're talking about today. And this is where we manage the entire e-commerce pipeline in a white-label capacity for video game publishers and developers.

So, Juan, glad to have you. Like we said, let's talk e-commerce. Let's start off by just explaining, or if you could explain in your own words, what is it that we do? What does e-commerce do?  

Juan:

Well, I think merch has always been a huge part of the gaming culture.

It extends the reach of any game by offering additional, like an additional experience, bringing parts of the game to the real world. So we focus basically on creating items that fans of each game would know a lot.

Sean:

So, a focus on products or the items that we make. That's the core component of e-commerce is what you're saying. Did I hear that right?  

Juan:

Yes, of course. That's right.

Sean:

So, Juan, in our previous episodes, we talked about the teams and the breakdown of people who get the job done. And we were talking with Joe McGrath, our creative director. Let's start off by doing the same thing with you.

So can you explain to me who does what in your team? And let's start with yourself. What does a typical day for you look like?  

Juan:

Yeah, I'm currently the head of e-commerce. I have a background in product development.

I'm a huge gamer myself. So I get together with my team every day to create these product collections for the eShop Speedo. I manage both product design and art direction for these products, as well as logistics and order fulfillment communications with our warehouses to bring customers the best experience while shopping at one of our stores.

Sean:

Very good. Hey, Juan, I noticed you have a very charming accent. Why don't you tell everybody where you're calling from?  

Juan:

Yes, I'm from El Salvador. Actually, it's been 10 years since I moved to Buenos Aires. My kids are from here, so I'm living in Buenos Aires and enjoying the city. It's great to live here.

Sean:

That's something that's important to mention. I don't know if we mentioned it in previous videos, is that we're headquartered in two different places. So Los Angeles, where I'm located, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, where you're located. We've got two locations per waypoint. All right. So a little segue there. So you talked about yourself, and we gave a big picture of what e-commerce does. But what are the other roles in the e-commerce group?  

Juan:

Well, we have a group of designers, product developers. We have original illustrators, very talented illustrators and artists. We have a 3D team that lets us visualize how our products are going to look like in the end. And an amazing team of producers who basically manage each project and help us out during the entire process. We also have our sourcing team, which is located both in Buenos Aires and China. So it lets us look for the best partners to develop these products and bring them to life.  

Sean:

What does that mean, looks for the best partners? What exactly does the sourcing manager do?  

Juan:

Yes. So we manufacture products both internationally and domestically. So we look for the best factory to create each individual product. So if we're creating a skateboard deck, we look for the best quality boards. Sometimes the best boards are in California, you should know. So that does have a great quality. So we're always looking for the best partners, both in manufacturing and also logistics. We work with top tier partners in terms of warehousing and logistics to help us fulfill all the orders that come into our shop. These partners have warehouses and fulfillment centers located inside the US, in Europe, Asia and Latin America. So it helps out a lot.  

Sean:

Very good. And so we're talking a lot about making the product, designing them, manufacturing them, getting them there. Logistics, that kind of stuff. What are the other roles that you have in the e-comm team?  

Juan:

Well, we have our marketing team that handles all things, social media, newsletter, SEO. We have our dev team that handles the back end, customer service, which is an integral part of e-commerce. And as I mentioned, the design team, which is basically one of the most important roles in the team, because they create what we sell in each store. We've talked about who does what and how it happens.

Sean:

And so let's take maybe a step back and what's the core focus or what makes our Waypoint e-commerce team special? What drives the ball forward and what makes us stand out?  

Juan:

Okay. So in my opinion, I think creativity and flexibility are key attributes of our team. Being able to adapt to any project or circumstances lets us grow as individuals, as professionals and as a team, as a whole. One of the most interesting things about it is the team is comprised of a group of multicultural professionals from all over the world. So having this exchange on a daily basis gives us like a unique perspective on things. Even if we speak different languages and live far apart, we all know how it is to rage about an Elden Ring boss that nobody can beat or how anxious you get while playing a Silent Hill game. In the end, gaming is like one global language. So I think creativity, flexibility and our multicultural background are three key attributes of our team.  

Sean:

For sure. I remember when I was visiting, it was quite a mishmash of different types of people. You know, we had girls that were in a punk rock band, somebody who just demolished me at an arcade on, what was it?  

Juan:

San Diego.

Sean:

Yeah, he just murdered me. We had people from all over the place, like you said, different accents, different looks. And I think that does add a bit of a twist or some flavor to what we do for sure. And so we've talked about the people and we've talked about our, I guess, unique selling points, if you will. And I think something, if it's not obvious for those who don't know us, is that we exclusively work on video game projects. And so everybody's focused on video games. We've got like a laser focus on video games. Isn't that right?  

Juan:

I think that's also a key attribute of the team in which focusing on video games has led us to create this group of people, gamers, nerds, whatever you want to call them, that we all speak the same language. We all know what customers want. We all know what gamers want.

Sean:

And so it makes for a really interesting creative process working with gamers for gamers. And so we've talked about more of a global thing. We've talked about our focus.

Let's talk a little bit more about what it is that we do. And so we've explained in the beginning that we handle e-commerce in a white label capacity, which means we can run a big company store behind the scenes. And we do other things as well. For certain customers, we don't do the entire e-commerce pipeline. We might just do one or two parts of the e-commerce pipeline. And so what kind of services do we offer?  

Juan:

Basically, managing an e-store, the process is first we create the store. We use Shopify as our main support back end. And we establish an initial lineup of products to launch the shop. As well, we open dedicated social media channels, customer support channels, a newsletter that we'll later use, and other marketing elements that we will use when we launch the shop. We develop the store assets like product images and banners to ensure an excellent user experience when people come to the store. And then we plan the launch event in collaboration with each studio to generate buzz and excitement for the store to come. When the store opens, we manage the orders and pre-orders globally. We manufacture the products both internationally and domestically. And we fulfill the orders worldwide. We try to repeat this process regularly with new products collections coming periodically to keep the store fresh and new for our customers.

Sean:

And so, you know, what I was getting at was, what are the different things we do? And so that's all the different steps in running the store. Let's say you had your own e-commerce team or you had another person already on the inside and you wanted just a slice of that. And so I know we do that for some customers. For example, we might not run their store, but we might just make products for their store, right? Or we might not even make the products, but maybe they want a hand knowing what's cool, what's going to sell, what's trending. And they'll ask us to do a presentation so that they can go ahead and have those items made with their own manufacturers and so on. So we don't have to do the entire store was my point. I guess we can just do parts of the e-commerce pipeline, right?  

Juan:

Correct. We do this with a few partners in which we basically become their product development team. So we create the concepts, we send them for approval, then we manufacture these products for them to sell on their e-stores. We do this using our experience from the entire e-commerce industry by suggesting which products are trending, which products are going to trend next year, focusing on seasonal events. And that way we can create products that are in line with each studio's strategy.  

‍Sean:

Let's talk about getting a product done. Let's drill down a little. And I think we can talk more in the future and we can make a whole bunch of videos on how things work in e-commerce. Because it's really complex and it's really interesting. But let's drill down on how we make a product. I'm going to let you pick one of your all-time favorite products that you worked on or that you started from scratch and brought all the way to completion at Waypoint e-commerce. Which one is it? And then take us from the beginning, how you sketched it out all the way to delivering it to somebody's door. Go ahead.  

Juan:

Right. I can give you two examples. First, the process. I think it's interesting to explain a little bit about the process. So the process begins with getting to know the game we're working on. And not just playing it, but do a deep dive. Understanding the game's concepts, details, and also getting into the game's communities. Because those communities are going to be our future customers. So it's very important to get to know them. So to give you some examples, for Silent Hill, we knew that James Sanderson and his journey through his own grief in the game has always touched the minds of all gamers. So we thought to bring his iconic jacket to the real world. Even including an Easter egg. That's why the jacket comes with a copy of Maria's letter in one of the pockets. So I think we do this because we did dive into each game. So we know the details customers and fans will love. We launched this back in May. Alongside with Konami, people loved it. It has since become one of the most popular items on the Konami shop. Then for Atlus, for Sega, we identified on creating official accounts and accessories for cosplay. It's very important for their amazing community. So we brought to life the iconic green sports jacket from Chi, one of the protagonists of Persona 4. Same thing we did with the red tie for Adachi. That's not a main character, but we found out it was one of the most popular among the community. It's a fan favorite.

‍Sean:

Tell me about making a plushie. Let's pick your favorite plushie. Start me off from the beginning of how you came up with the idea.

All the way, how do you deliver the plushie? Walk me through the process, please.  

Juan:

Creating a plushie, we tend to do stylized versions of beloved video game characters. That means we look for the best style to fit each game's theme.

For plushies, you're always looking for a fluffy shape. Something you can hug, something you can sleep with. That tends to be one of the main attributes. Then we start creating the plushie. Is it going to have hands? Is it going to have legs? What kind of eyes? What kind of face is it going to have? Is it going to be cute? Is it going to be dark and edgy? We create the concepts as if I work with a 3D team and start visualizing how this 3D object is going to look like. That's all before we send it to approval. I think the stylizations we've created for our stores, both for Sega, for Konami, and other customers, have been very successful on the stores.  

Sean:

Can you explain what you mean, send it for approval? Can you just walk us through that?  

Juan:

Everything we do, of course, is lined up with every studio's strategy. Every design, every banner, every asset, and every product goes to the studio for them to see and approve. That way, it becomes a really cool partnership. They give us feedback, and then we can suggest new things to add to each product. It just becomes a team effort, bringing these plushies and these products to life.

Sean:

Let me just recap here. We've got some design work done. We did some pre-visualization, some mock-ups, some style frames.

We did some work with the 3D team so that everybody can get a good idea of what the end product will be. We sent that all off in a beautiful presentation to the licensor. Of course, they approved it on the first shot without any feedback at all. After that gets approved, then what happens?  

Juan:

Then we create the samples for these products. We need to ensure that these products look and feel exactly as we want them to. Not just plushies, but collectible items also. We do the samples. We send the samples to our sourcing team. We sometimes send the samples to our design team so they can see the quality of the products. We focus on quality because we know our customers are waiting for high quality on this product. We focus on that. When we get the final sample, we ship it to the studio so they can see how the final product is going to look like. Both with the packaging and how it's going to look like in real life. When that's approved, we can go into mass production. Sometimes we go into mass production before we launch the products. But sometimes customers want to pre-order the items before they get to our warehouse. We take some really cool pictures of the final sample because we know the mass production is going to look exactly like that one. Then we open the pre-order for these products. We take the orders and we fulfill them in a timely manner. So we produce the items. Fulfillment is the act of receiving them at our warehouse, packing them up into a shipper, and sending them off via USPS or a courier or whatever the customer chooses when he or she checks out on our website. And then they receive the product.  

Sean:

Is there anything else that can happen after that? Maybe there's some customer service or some after-sales service situations that we need to be there for? Anything else?  

Juan:

Yes, of course. When we start taking orders in, there's usually a time between one week and three weeks when people decide to change their address. People decide to change the size of the jacket they order. Or maybe they want to send the plus sheet to somebody else, so they change the address again. So our customer service team is always ready to pick up on these cases and just edit the orders so we can ensure that when the products start shipping to customers, each customer has their products when and where they want it.

Sean:

Excellent. One thing that came to mind as I was listening to you talk about your work is that e-commerce is really, in a sense, an extension of the brand, isn't it?  

Normally we have these customers that are passionate about video games and they buy from the game company video games and then they play them with their friends and it's great. But then in between releases, it could be that there's a bit of a lull where you get to engage with your favorite character or puzzle or hero or whatever it is.

And isn't e-commerce a way to be an extension of your brand and for you to engage with your customers and your community in a different way, especially in between releases? What do you think about that?  

Juan:

I think, like I said before, I think brunch has always been a huge part of the entire gaming culture. It extends the reach of any game by offering an additional experience outside the game. Also, official merch lets people express their love for their favorite games by getting the stuff they want, getting the stuff they see in-game, buying the t-shirt from their favorite character.

So it just keeps each game and each brand fresh and new. Even if there's no news about the game, we can always support those games with really cool items and merch.

Sean:

Cool. Let's keep going down this business avenue we started down here. And so we are actively seeking, we being Waypoint e-commerce, we are actively seeking what's called licensors. And these are people that own rights or are rights holders. So they have the rights to certain intellectual properties or also known as IPs. And we want to find those rights holders that have popular IPs with a big community and a fan base that are hungry to get their hands on cool new products that maybe don't exist already or that haven't been out for a while. And we're actively seeking that. And so on the flip side, there are those rights holders, and they have sometimes a licensing department or licensing director or sometimes just the poor marketing guy or girl that's just stuck doing everything. And they need to find partners like us to enhance the customer's experience through branded merchandise and that kind of stuff. And so what do you think, what makes an ideal partner for you on the business side?  

Juan:

Well, I think the key word that you just said was enhanced. I think our team enhances any licensing team within any studio in the sense that we can handle everything. Like the best partner for us would be a studio with a popular IP, popular band, a popular video game that we can work with and that is eager to offer their customers a cool experience outside the game they develop. So we tend to think out of the box normally. And we give these studios and these partners really cool ideas on how to do this. Not just merch, but events and marketing stunts that we think could enhance each IP.  So I want each partner to think of our team as that enhancement of this separate team B, let's say, that is going to be constantly thinking of new ideas and new products for their beloved IP.

Sean:

Excellent. Let's talk about marketing. So what types of marketing efforts do we do or do we provide in order to move product? Because let's be clear, our goal is to delight fans with cool items that get everybody excited and hopefully to delight many fans, that is to say, sell lots of stuff. And so can you explain the different marketing channels that we use in order to get the word out?  

Juan:

Normally we would advise on creating dedicated marketing channels for each of the stores that we do. We think that the main channels for the games should focus on what fans are following them for, which is news about the day. So by supporting each other, we can focus on the merch and have customers ask questions about merch to us directly on DMs or comments without interfering with the game's dev team.

So within these channels we create, we do social media, which is ever so important nowadays. So we do Instagram, X, we're opening our dedicated TikTok accounts with dedicated teams that create content specifically for that platform because we all know each platform has different types of content. So the team that does content for TikTok, they have a blast doing little cutesy videos, some plushies dancing around to the new trending audio, but social media is super important.

But we found out that newsletters, email marketing is also a big part of this. People feel that they're part of a community when we start offering exclusive offers or exclusive early access to products to our newsletter subscribers. So that's really important.

SMS marketing, messaging to mobile phones, I think that's become very important to our pipeline because people get direct access to the products and the announcements that we do. All of this is, of course, opt-in. So you can opt-in to subscribe to our newsletter, subscribe to our SMS marketing.

Sean:

So I think those are the main channels. And then we optimize the entire store with the best SEO practices to really extend not just the reach of the store, but the reach and the online presence of any brand or IP that we work with. So talking about reach, we get asked this question all the time. Do we ship worldwide? What do you say?  

Juan:

We do. To fulfill orders worldwide, we work with top tier partners in logistics and warehouse around the world. Some games have greater impact in the U.S., some have it in Europe. So we tend to move with the trend of each IP and each brand when it comes to fulfilling orders from different places. This ensures a better service from our paying customers in which they have a lower shipping rate because their goodies and their items are being shipped from nearby. So we have extensive experience on working with logistics partners around the world.

Sean:

Very good. All right, Juan, we're going to wrap this show up. Unless there's anything else that you think you need to share with everybody else or that some experience you want to share, let us know.

Juan:

I think I've never worked with such a dedicated team of gamers and nerds that speak the same language. I think having similar interests and getting to know the games, getting into the video game industry, it's such a unifying passion that every day, every week, we get together and think of new items and new products to develop. We do so by thinking, I would want to buy that because we're all gamers, we're all fans here. And added to that, the experience that we have on the whole e-commerce pipeline, I think that sets us apart. That makes for an amazing team that is really passionate for what they do.  

Sean:

Right on.

Juan:

Go team, go.

Sean:

Right on. All right.

Thanks for your time. And I think next video we do, we should talk about all the coolest, the cool products that you've made. And we'll go into detail and we'll show them and maybe show some behind the scenes footage and we'll do something like that.

So nice talking to you, Juan. Thanks for joining us on the show, sharing your expertise. Much obliged.

And for all of you out there listening to us, I hope you're getting some kind of a benefit or value by watching our show. If you have any questions or anything you guys are curious about, please let us know down in the comments. Please drop us a like if you think the video is any good.

And if you have any input, let me know, I’ll be delighted to hear it. Thanks everybody and see you next time.

Juan:

Thanks, bye bye.