Running High-Traffic Product Launches at Build-A-Bear with Art Huggard
Tue Feb 03 2026
In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma sits down with Art Huggard, former VP of E-Commerce at Build-A-Bear, who transformed the company's online presence from a crashing website to a $70 million business over eight years. Art shares his unconventional path from chemical engineering to e-commerce leadership at Bass Pro Shops, Hudson's Bay, and Build-A-Bear. He reveals how the company went from website crashes every hour during the 2016 holiday season to successfully managing viral product launches like Baby Yoda that sold out in four hours. Art discusses Queue-it's virtual waiting room for handling extreme traffic spikes, real-time system tuning during flash sales, and the importance of balancing technical infrastructure with guest experience. The conversation covers cloud scalability challenges, order management bottlenecks in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and what it takes to handle 300+ orders per minute. The episode illustrates how preparation and cross-industry lessons can turn unpredictable demand into business success.
Episode page
---(00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
(01:03) - From Chemical Engineer to Ecommerce Leader
(05:01) - How Early Ecommerce Got the Experience Wrong
(07:30) - Walking Into a Website That Was Crashing
(09:56) - Why Build-A-Bear Isn't Just a Toy Company
(12:03) - Using AI to Remove Bottlenecks and Ship Faster
(14:43) - COVID, Baby Yoda, and Sudden Demand Spikes
(16:05) - What 300 Orders a Minute Really Looks Like
(22:38) - Finding the Real Bottlenecks in the Stack
(25:29) - From Ammunition to Baby Yoda: Cross-Industry Lessons
(27:57) - Book Recommendations and Professional Advice
(30:32) - What Scalability Really Means
Art Huggard is a leading expert in Digital Commerce. He has helped many well known brands such as Build-A-Bear, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Hudson Bay and others move from chaos to High Growth. He has a keen understanding of the entire customer ecosystem including Web, Order Management, CRM, Loyalty and Digital Marketing. Known for building high performance teams Art has been an excellent mentor to many at the companies where he has worked. Most recently Art has formed Gateway-Commerce (www.gateway-commerce.com) where he provides fractional consulting to companies looking to make significant improvements to how they serve their guests.
This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. © Queue-it, 2026
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In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma sits down with Art Huggard, former VP of E-Commerce at Build-A-Bear, who transformed the company's online presence from a crashing website to a $70 million business over eight years. Art shares his unconventional path from chemical engineering to e-commerce leadership at Bass Pro Shops, Hudson's Bay, and Build-A-Bear. He reveals how the company went from website crashes every hour during the 2016 holiday season to successfully managing viral product launches like Baby Yoda that sold out in four hours. Art discusses Queue-it's virtual waiting room for handling extreme traffic spikes, real-time system tuning during flash sales, and the importance of balancing technical infrastructure with guest experience. The conversation covers cloud scalability challenges, order management bottlenecks in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and what it takes to handle 300+ orders per minute. The episode illustrates how preparation and cross-industry lessons can turn unpredictable demand into business success. Episode page ---(00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast (01:03) - From Chemical Engineer to Ecommerce Leader (05:01) - How Early Ecommerce Got the Experience Wrong (07:30) - Walking Into a Website That Was Crashing (09:56) - Why Build-A-Bear Isn't Just a Toy Company (12:03) - Using AI to Remove Bottlenecks and Ship Faster (14:43) - COVID, Baby Yoda, and Sudden Demand Spikes (16:05) - What 300 Orders a Minute Really Looks Like (22:38) - Finding the Real Bottlenecks in the Stack (25:29) - From Ammunition to Baby Yoda: Cross-Industry Lessons (27:57) - Book Recommendations and Professional Advice (30:32) - What Scalability Really Means Art Huggard is a leading expert in Digital Commerce. He has helped many well known brands such as Build-A-Bear, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Hudson Bay and others move from chaos to High Growth. He has a keen understanding of the entire customer ecosystem including Web, Order Management, CRM, Loyalty and Digital Marketing. Known for building high performance teams Art has been an excellent mentor to many at the companies where he has worked. Most recently Art has formed Gateway-Commerce (www.gateway-commerce.com) where he provides fractional consulting to companies looking to make significant improvements to how they serve their guests. This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. © Queue-it, 2026