BackcountryStore.com’s early December sales rise 200% over last year
December sales at BackcountryStore.com are up 200% over last December, following November sales that rose 163% over the previous year, director of marketing Dustin Robertson tells Internet Retailer. The online retailer of high-tech outdoors gear attributes the lift to a number of factors including its first-ever catalog, a 24-page mailing that dropped in mid-November.
In November alone, online conversions increased by half a percentage point after the catalog shipped. The retailer is especially pleased with that increase given that it’s at a time of year when sales are running at their highest volume, and that it was realized after the company began carrying more higher-ticket items in the product mix. Robertson says products such as ski jackets at $400 and skis averaging $700 helped push average cart size up 28% over both its fall average cart size and over November of last year. “Usually there is an inverse relationship between cart size and conversion rates, but both are up,” he says. “That really points to the catalog driving conversions in November.”
Also boosting conversions is another product being sold online for the first time this season. BackcountryStore was one of a limited number of retailers able to offer online sales of hard goods--boards and bindings--from Burton Snowboards, the category’s largest manufacturer. Previously Burton made only its apparel available online. The boards went online at the end of October and within six weeks BackcountryStore had sold 90% of its order. “One thing we are seeing this year is that people are more comfortable making big-ticket, technical purchases online, especially snowboards,” Robertson says.
Yet another factor in the season’s sales lift for BackcountryStore.com has been e-mail. The retailer normally sends only two per month to its house list, but decided to send a third one at the end of November. “We tested a small batch first to watch the unsubscribe rate to see if it made people mad,” says Robertson. “That third e-mail turned out to be our biggest revenue-generating e-mail ever.”
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