Sporting Goods
Sites give customers bragging rights

Internet Retailer Web Design Conference 2009

Guide to E-Commerce Technology

Sporting Goods Altrec.com BestKiteboarding.com Bodybuilding.com Cabelas.com DicksSportingGoods.com Golfballs.com Moosejaw.com REI.com

Sports enthusiasts love to talk about their triumphs, and more sporting goods e-retailers are making it possible for them to tell not just their friends about their exploits but the whole world.

DicksSportingGoods.com is filled with crisp shots of all kinds of goods and players. But those are for the products. So the e-retailer launched Bragging Board, where everyone from fishermen to hunters can post stories and pictures from their adventures. Likewise, Cabelas.com offers Memories in the Field, where customers can present stories about their outdoors feats.

BestKiteboarding.com serves up about 128 gigabytes of videos every month and says video is the biggest driver for getting shoppers back to the site. Videos include customers showing their stuff on kiteboards, not just discussing their best waves.

Moosejaw.com encourages customers to send in as many photographs as they can, especially ones displaying the Moosejaw flag--for example, climbers planting the flag atop a mountain. For products, the e-retailer added Ajax as part of a redesign so shoppers can quickly view product information without having to click back and forth between pages.

Additionally, Moosejaw is a pioneer in m-commerce. It has embraced text messaging as much as its customers have. Customers who buy on Moosejaw.com, for instance, can opt for a tracking number to be sent to their mobile phone. 25% of customers who place an order sign up to get texted.

At Altrec.com, the e-retailer is providing plenty of information to customers. Its adventure publication and educational site, GreatOutdoors.com, is filled with news, how-to`s and features on outdoor sports and travel.

REI.com joined a major trend in e-commerce by adding customer reviews. Since it began offering the tool in late August, it has amassed more than 18,000 reviews. To give customers even more to consider, it also bulked up information on product pages.

And at Golfballs.com, the merchant has been making it easier for shoppers to find and create personalized products. It has simplified search and navigation for personalization options, which includes imprinting names or goofy sayings on golf balls.

Get out!

"We have an aggressive vacation policy for our customer service people, so that their experience is fresh and relevant," says Mike Morford, CEO of Altrec, based in Kirkland, Wash. "Sometimes our vendors will send products with them to test."

Morford`s dearest wish is for everyone to get out of the house and off the main road for at least a little while. To that end, the company operates two sites--the pure retail play at altrec.com, where each offering is unconditionally guaranteed, and a combination store/adventure publication/educational site at GreatOutdoors.com (motto: "Inspire, Equip, Connect, and GO"). GreatOutdoors is packed with news, how-to`s, and features on outdoor sports and travel. If the reading inspires the desire to purchase something, the customer is sent to greatoutdoors.altrec.com.

"That split makes sense from both a conceptual standpoint and for search-engine optimization," says Sucharita Mulpuru, principal analyst at Forrester Research. Visitors to GreatOutdoors can bookmark articles with several different tools, such as del.icio.us or Digg. "The more they engage with the content, the more likely it is to drive traffic to Altrec."

Altrec has owned the GreatOutdoors brand since 2000, but is only now starting to develop it fully, with a redesign that debuted in October. Morford is rapidly beefing up the content, with videos and interviews with noted outdoorsmen and women. The company is also expanding its product selection, currently at about 40,000 items, adding an outlet section, and trying to grow its affiliate program.

Forrester`s Mulpuru admires Altrec`s strategy of gathering opt-in e-mail addresses through a product giveaway sweepstakes combined with a newsletter offer. "It`s increasingly difficult to get good opt-in e-mail addresses," she says. "Anyone coming to the site who`s a product enthusiast is likely to sign up, and it`s a low investment to get that valuable address." Back to Top

Surfing the web

Best Kiteboarding is the largest single retailer in the kiteboarding space, based on kites sold, Lawson says. "Most kiteboarding companies are small and local and don`t sell to the masses," he adds.

As the sport grows, Bestkiteboarding.com is set to be a popular home on the web. "The Best Kiteboarding site is among the most comprehensive I`ve seen as a go-to site for anyone interested in a narrowly defined extreme sport," says George Whalin, president and CEO of Retail Management Consultants. He applauds the wide product selection, wealth of information about the sport, community-building forums and canny use of online video.

The site serves 128 gigabytes of videos per month. "Videos are the biggest driver for getting people back to our web site," Lawson says. "Even if you run specials, people don`t buy every single day. We have guys across the world sending stuff to our in-house video editors." Another driver is the forums, where enthusiasts swap product information and opinions.

BestKiteboarding.com leads a double life--as a direct-to-consumer site and a customer center for resellers, who have a separate log-in and tool set for managing their accounts.

Between retail shops and kiteboarding schools, Best Kiteboarding has about 500 commercial accounts worldwide, and both their numbers and purchase volume are growing fast, Lawson says. The company has 12 sales reps across the world managing those accounts, and the web service center that debuted earlier this year has eased their burdens considerably.

The resellers` center provides support in half a dozen languages, a capability that Lawson plans to expand to the consumer site early in 2008. "We`re small but global," he says. Back to Top

Physical and social

The e-retailer plans to intensify the social aspects of its site in 2008. "It won`t be just, `Here`s the product you should buy,` but `Here are BodySpace members you should know and content you should read,` based on what a customer`s needs and goals are," says CEO Ryan DeLuca. "We`ve just launched a workout tracker so people can follow each other`s progress. You can show your friends online what you`re doing, and people can have virtual workout partners. The main idea is to keep people motivated and excited about working out."

That enthusiasm could translate to major sales growth: DeLuca is projecting $122 million next year, up from a projected $90 million this year.

"There is no doubt our community and social networking offerings are making a big difference for sales and conversion," DeLuca says. "Since we added BodySpace, our average order size is up nearly $10 to $92.41, and our conversion rate is 8%, up from 7% a year ago. That one percentage point is huge."

Also this year, the site beefed up its use of online video. Bodybuilding.com hosts 24 different bodybuilding programs, each with multiple episodes. And live webcasts from bodybuilding shows have proven extremely popular.

While the content side of Bodybuilding.com is getting more social, the commerce side is getting more personal, observes Craig Smith, founder of consulting firm Trinity Insights. "Most retailers structure their categories by product, but Bodybuilding.com structures some of their navigation by fitness goal, whether it`s for muscle builders, fat loss products or energy enhancers. This structure helps users quickly find the products that meet their intrinsic goals or desires, and likely increases conversion rates." Back to Top

Good hunting

Shoppers can search for items by categories, including hunting, archery, shooting gear, dog supplies, optics, electronics, men`s hunting clothing and women`s and children`s clothing. Other search options include camping, auto and ATV, food and food prep, and home and cabin.

The site also has a section for overstock, special buy and clearance items called Bargain Cave, which can be accessed from the home page.

Shoppers also can view product reviews, buyers` guides, articles and Cabela`s Memories in the Field, videos in which Cabela`s customers recount their outdoor adventures. In one recent episode, two hunters in Colorado chased mule deer, a fisherman in Alaska reeled in a gigantic halibut, and hunters in South Carolina pursued turkeys.

Cabela`s outdoor info section--which carries information for the "serious outdoorsman"--covers topics such as field test reports on binoculars, charts comparing similar products and field clips.

"Cabela`s is a great site," says Roseanne Morrison, fashion director at Doneger Consulting. "It`s really easy to use. And it`s not just clothing, but all the gear that you use hunting."

Cabelas.com also was named the best shopping experience among 20 major U.S. retail sites in a 2006 benchmark study released by Cisco Systems` Internet Business Solutions Group. Included in the study were the top 10 U.S. web retailers (by revenue) in 2004, and several leading big-box and discount retailers.

Cisco cited Sidney, Neb.-based Cabela`s strong online look, feel and brand image consistent with store and catalog experiences. Back to Top

Winning the web game

Golfers are greeted by flowing green fairways. A "handicap tracker" invites them to list their scores and have their handicaps calculated.

Anglers and hunters enter pages that put them beside lakes or deep in the woods. They can post photos of their catch on "bragging boards."

All the pages "have the same shopping core," says Jeff Hennion, senior vice president and marketing manager for Dick`s, "but the feel is different to make customers feel at home. It`s important that our web site brings across the same energetic feel that you get when you visit our stores."

Pittsburgh-based Dick`s, with 340 stores, overhauled its web site last year, "to give customers an experience online as good as they can get in our stores," says Hennion. It does that through clean and easy navigation and dramatic action photos, as well as sound.

Gene Alvarez, vice president at Gartner, Inc., a technology research and consulting firm, says Dick`s redesign pulled off the nifty trick of being both visually compelling and extremely user friendly, allowing for quick navigating and shopping.

Visitors can sort products by brand, price, or top sellers. The home page runs the usual sport-by-sport tabs but also lists various brands at mid-page. The site makes it easy to compare products and offers a buyer`s guide to help shoppers unfamiliar with products.

Customers can use a mini-cart to see all the items they`ve purchased before checking out. They also can post product reviews.

The largest sporting goods store in the country, Dick`s sees its web site as a way to reach consumers who might not have visited an outlet. "We are marketing DicksSportingGoods.com on a national basis, every day of the year," says Hennion. "The web site is a place where a lot of people can shop, especially if they`re not near a store." Back to Top

It`s all about you

During the 2006 holiday season, the retailer increased sales by more than 30% and tripled conversion rates. Eight out of ten of those holiday orders included personalized golf balls or other personalized items.

"Golfballs.com offers customers a unique and personalized experience," says Tom Cox, president and CEO of Golfballs.com Inc., based in Lafayette, La. "This starts with our web site and marketing efforts and continues through our product lines of imprinted golf balls and embroidered golf apparel."

Golfballs.com has taken steps to make it easier for shoppers to find personalized products and process orders. Using web analytics from Omniture Inc., it has identified areas where it can simplify the search and navigation for personalization options, which include imprinting golf balls with personal photos or funny messages.

"We have developed an intuitive ordering interface on our web site, combined it with proprietary software that seamlessly links our web site to our production department, allowing us to imprint and embroider one unit at a time, with a one to two day turnaround," Cox says. "This creates a superior customer experience that translates into long-term customer loyalty."

The retailer earlier this year also rebuilt the site on Microsoft`s .Net 2.0 platform, resulting in a site that can handle far more traffic. And, because more data can now be cached, the site can more quickly display product details and other information without sending all data requests to a back-end database.

In addition, Golfballs.com redesigned its category presentations to make it easier to search by size and color. Also helping to drive sales is Google Checkout, which it offers as an option along with its own checkout page and PayPal`s payment service.

"They do a great job for their target market," says Kim Painley, president of Kinetic Marketing Consultants. "They prominently show all the big brands, it`s very promotional, which is appropriate for them." Back to Top

Solid as a rock

"In addition to a massive selection, the site features photos of people using the gear, testimonials from satisfied customers, a liberal return policy, free shipping on orders over $29, live help, a monthly contest, plenty of sale merchandise and a sense of humor," says George Whalin, president and CEO of Retail Management Consultants.

Based in Madison Heights, Mich., Moosejaw recently completed a site overhaul that added an Ajax-based product quick-view feature (to save users from toggling between product pages and search results), a drop-down cart, and the ability to view and sort search results by customer rating. On the product side, the site has added surfing and snowboarding equipment.

Like its target audience, Moosejaw has embraced text messaging. "We see lots of our customers texting people who are standing right next to them," Robert Wolfe says. Moosejaw offers to text its customers tracking information for their orders. Wolfe estimates one in five sign up.

On the back end, Moosejaw has used Retail Backbone to overhaul the way it programs promotions on the site and in shopping engines so its marketing department can handle things without bothering programming staff. The company recently offered free two-day air shipping on all North Face products. The promotion came up with every search that included North Face items, and was included in all affiliate marketing.

It`s not always about efficiency, though. Each customer who posts a product review gets a personal note. "That`s one thing we don`t automate," Wolfe says. Back to Top

A new foundation

But those changes are only laying the foundation for what Brad Brown, vice president of e-commerce and web strategy, says will be the first significant redesign of the site since 2003, beginning next spring.

The new site search capabilities from Mercado give shoppers the option of searching for products based on categories such as vendor, best selling and price. "We`re still experimenting with what makes sense for our shoppers," Brown says. "We`ll do more with the Mercado tool as time progresses," including upgrading the site`s navigation and merchandising capabilities.

The second addition to the site--customer reviews--has generated an outstanding response, Brown says.

"It`s something our members and customers have been asking for for a very long time," he says. Since REI.com, the online arm of Kent, Wash.-based Recreational Equipment Inc., launched the feature at the end of August, customers have posted more than 18,000 reviews. On one popular tent, customers wrote 185 reviews. "They just keep coming in," Brown says, adding the response "confirms that our customers are willing to engage with us."

He says REI.com made a big push to get the customer review feature in place before the holiday shopping season.

REI.com also chose the end of August to revise product pages, moving to a mid-page tab format for product information and related items. The revised page also places thumbnails of alternate images of a product--which shoppers can click on for a larger view--under the main image.

"REI does a wonderful job," says Kim Painley, president of Kinetic Marketing Consultants. "It`s well laid out, it`s well categorized, and promotions are well done. And they have Flash on their site but it`s done well and it makes sense. It`s actually a good marketing tool, not just dictated by what the designers think it ought to be." Back to Top