At a company where management values customer loyalty above all else, one would think executives would take retaining customers seriously. Moosejaw Mountaineering, however, prefers madness.
That’s why the company created its Moosejaw Madness section. The objective of the section is to create and maintain an online community where customers routinely visit because they like going to the site, because it’s fresh and funny, says founder Robert Wolfe.
“Our goal is to sell the best products and make sure customers and staff have as much fun as possible in the process,” Wolfe says. “There is so much interaction with customers in our stores that it’s easy to have a great, fun experience. We literally have people dancing on the counters and fooling around. Through the Moosejaw Madness section of our site, we’re recreating that experience online.”
Moosejaw Madness is second only to the North Face brand product page in total clicks. But there’s a twist: There are no products for sale in the section. Its reason for being is to foster an online community that frequents the overall site, Wolfe explains. In the madness section, shoppers and customers can, among other things:
- Play a daily game of rock-paper-scissors. If they win, they get 20% off a product of their choice.
- Write to “Dating Girl” for advice on all things romance.
- Participate in a blog.
- Post favorite movie quotes.
Later this month the company will launch a redesigned web site, which it does on an annual basis; it reworks the home page every week. New to the site will be alternate product views and customer reviews. Additionally, the company is enhancing product information, its comparison tool, zoom functionality and site search, as well as adding more images. It also will be adding more features to the madness section. On the merchandise side, the company later this year will add products from the realm of “action sports,” which includes snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing and others.
When it comes to ways other than its mad community to make shoppers regulars, the company remains unconventional. It currently is launching a podcast and is working on a system to enable e-commerce, along with the madness, on shoppers’ web-enabled mobile phones and PDAs. “Our goal is to be first to market in our industry with new ideas,” Wolfe adds.
The company previously created text-messaging technology to market products and keep its mad customers in touch. However, it found the ongoing expense of text-messaging technology to be too costly.
Moosejaw Mountaineering online sales climbed 61% in 2005 to $12.5 million compared with $7.75 million in 2004, according to Internet Retailer estimates. It operates seven stores, a catalog and the e-commerce site. It also sells Retail Backbone, back-end e-commerce business technology it developed in house.
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