Backcountry introduces an alert system for bargain hunters
Backcountry.com has introduced a service for customers who can’t get enough of its SteepandCheap.com site, which offers deeply discounted prices on “killer gear:” an alert system that notifies bargain hunters when a new deal has been posted.
The alert system is one more innovation for the site Backcountry president John Bresee refers to as “our sandbox,” where the retailer tests new concepts. In August, Backcountry transformed SteepandCheap.com—which originally posted only one deal at midnight each day—into a 24-hour operation called the “Bottomless SaC.”
“The site was getting so much traffic that we were selling out at 1 a.m.,” Bresee says. “We had 23 hours of dead air some days.”
Now, a new item is posted on the site as soon as another deal sells out. “When we went to the Bottomless SaC, our traffic and revenue doubled without any advertising,” he says.
The overwhelming response to the Bottomless SaC feature prompted Backcountry to set up the alert system. On a page with the headline “Fuel Your Addiction,” avid SaC shoppers can download software that will forward an alert—via instant messages, desktop alerts, e-mail or RSS feed—whenever a new deal is listed on the site.
Thus far, tens of thousands of customers have downloaded the desktop alert software, Bresee says. “It paid for itself the first day,” he says.
Backcountry is No. 150 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites.
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