Campmor

Online Link to the Outdoors

The Situation:

Campmor is a leading retailer that caters to outdoor enthusiasts and sells everything from tents to canoes.  When the Internet began showing signs of promise as a retail channel, Campmor expanded beyond its single retail location and nationally distributed mail-order catalog and set up an online store.

 

The Challenge:

As the site grew to account for a greater percentage of the company’s sales, Campmor looked to move beyond a simple storefront and create an online shopping experience for its customers. The company knew that more than technology would be needed to translate its vision into reality. “We needed a partner with the business experience to help us develop a comprehensive e-commerce strategy and the technical skills to design and execute it,” said Campmor President and CEO Daniel Jarashow.

 

The Solution:

The first step Campmor needed to take to enhance and expand its e-commerce initiatives was to thoroughly understand the needs of its online customers. “Our customers are extremely savvy and expect more than the average consumer,” Jarashow said. Working together with a cross-functional team of business and technical professionals from Tachyon, Campmor developed a profile that was used to outline functionality that met and exceeded the expectations of Campmor shoppers. “Because their customers are very knowledgeable, Campmor needed much more than the standard shopping, tax collection, tracking and shipping functionality found in an off-the-shelf e-commerce product,” said Tachyon President Jeanette Thomas, who spearheaded the Campmor team. 

Once the customer functionality of the Campmor site had been outlined, Tachyon began selecting hardware and software to power it. The goal was to identify technologies that could scale and

 expand as Campmor’s online initiatives and revenues grew. Tachyon selected IBM’s WebSphere Commerce platform and DB2 database as a starting point and designed specific customization to

fit Campmor’s business needs. “Many of the items that Campmor sells have very technical specifications,” Thomas said. “For instance, they don’t just carry basic sleeping bags. They stock waterproof, down-filled sleeping bags for use in extreme temperatures. So we needed to extend the WebSphere product catalog in order to capture these additional product attributes.”  Tachyon expanded on the standard features built into WebSphere Commerce Server to create functionality unique to Campmor’s needs. “Because Campmor is continually enhancing and expanding the merchandise they offer, we created templates at both the product and category level that allow for easy updates to the site,” Thomas said.  These maintenance features make it easy for Campmor buyers to feature specific products or run special sales online the same way they do in the retail store.  In the brick and mortar environment, related products are often grouped together in a display or in the same aisle. Tachyon delivered similar functionality online by developing an advanced cross-sell feature that allows Campmor to direct shoppers to related merchandise within the site based upon criteria such as: product accessories, gender or similar items. "This ability to direct customers to portions of our site that they may not have visited and expose them to items they may not have considered has helped to drive additional revenues from both new and existing customers," Jarashow said.

While Tachyon programmers developed shopping components, the user experience design team set about creating a user interface for the Campmor site that was consistent with the company’s brand identity and reputation for superior customer service. “It’s very rare for a technical firm to provide design services, much less agency-quality work like Tachyon does,” Jarashow said. In addition to creating all of the graphic elements for the Campmor site, Tachyon produces a substantial amount of the content for the online product catalog. “To encourage repeat visits and purchases, it’s critical that the site be regularly updated to include new products,” Thomas said. “In our digital studio, we have the ability to take high-quality photos and upload them immediately. We think it made sense to perform this service for Campmor, rather than relying on a third-party provider who might slow things down.”

Since it’s tough to generate revenue online if shoppers can’t find your site,Tachyon also developed creative content such as banner ads for Campmor’s online advertisements and identified opportunities to place them through search engines and other vehicles. “Advertisements are worthless if they don’t reach your intended audience,” Thomas said. “Technology has improved to the point that it’s possible to reach consumers in a highly targeted way, and we leverage this technology on behalf of Campmor to ensure that every advertising dollar the company spends delivers a significant return.” Using sophisticated tracking technology, Tachyon regularly monitors the results of each ad placed on behalf of Campmor and shifts placements as necessary to generate the greatest visibility for the lowest possible cost. “We’ve been extremely pleased with the results of our online advertising and the additional traffic it has driven to our site,” Jarashow said.

From a modest beginning of approximately 4% of revenue from their online store, www.campmor.com now accounts for over 70% of Campmor’s revenue. In addition to designing and developing all of the functionality that makes Campmor a best-in-breed online retailer, Tachyon Interactive provided all of the marketing strategy, user interface, graphic design, and online marketing design for www.campmor.com.