By Jutta Stienen -
How Leading Sports Brands are redefining eCommerce in 2024
If there’s a golden thread in my conversations with sports brands like Atomic, Canyon, and Dynafit, it’s this: forward-thinking companies don’t merely recognise their customers’ expertise; they actively celebrate it. Here’s my perspective on why the world of sports eCommerce is embracing and amplifying community voices on their online stores.
We’re only five months into 2024, and I’m already knocked off my feet (or rather my road bike) by the number of thrilling webinars we’ve had with sports brands pioneering community-led strategies in eCommerce.
In early March, we had a webinar about Canyon’s vibrant community with Gudrun Scharler, Canyon’s Global Director of Customer Experience, and Dirk Dammert, the Global Director of Customer Service. Then, in mid-March, our webinar delved into the strategies of three leading community-powered brands – Atomic, Canyon, and Dynafit. And on 16 May—make sure you mark your calendar—we gear up for another exciting webinar featuring professional cyclist Silvan Dillier, teammate to world champ Mathieu Van der Poel. We’ll be exploring the dynamics within sports communities and how brands are harnessing that passion.
As a sports and marketing enthusiast, what more could I ask for? I get to talk to extremely interesting people about how they bring the essence of what makes sports so special, which is sharing the same passion, to their online stores. With brands I admire, I might add! Here’s a webinar excerpt of me raving about cycling and community:
In this webinar, you’ll hear me asking the audience: what is your passion? And I’d like to ask you the same. What is that one thing that you can’t stop talking about once someone mentions it in a conversation? It’s that thing you can’t wait to do when you have free time. It’s a topic you could talk about for hours.
I didn’t mention this in the webinar, but I only discovered my passion for road cycling in my early 30’s and today, I cannot express how much it has enriched my life. It’s taught me mental resilience, and it helps me clear my mind. I also enjoy the feeling of community that cycling gives me. If you have a passion, you may know this feeling too.
It’s more tangible when, for example, a stranger bikes alongside you in bad weather (that actually happened) or when you instantly and deeply connect with someone at a social gathering that you might not know very well, simply because you both love hiking in the Dolomites.
It’s an unspoken connection and even when it’s brief or superficial, it’s special, because you’re sharing or receiving a tiny bit of the excitement that someone else feels for the thing they love.
In a nutshell, that’s the feeling I try to bring to online stores with my work at GUURU. We connect shoppers to passionate customers on online stores and the reason we do it is because it works so well, so organically!
Here are a few of the results that Atomic and Canyon Bikes have highlighted in our conversations:
After a shopper has an exchange with the community, the conversion rate is 5x higher compared to the average conversion rates on their online store.
Canyon Bikes has an average CSAT value of 4.8/5 for all community conversations; a NPS value of over 80; and an average response time of under 60 seconds for all their community’s conversations.
If you would ask me which bike to buy, I know exactly which brand I’d recommend based on what you need. I know, because I’ve tried a few in my lifetime and I’d happily share my experience with you. And if I buy or replace cycling gear, I don’t just buy something. I want to feel good about what I spend my money on. I want to hear other cyclists’ opinions. But not all of us have access to these communities we feel connected to, especially not when we shop at 11 pm on a Thursday, as most of us do.
We try to bridge that gap at GUURU by bringing the people, who genuinely appreciate your products, directly to your online store at any hour. We also make it super easy for your shoppers to connect with these passionate customers in real-time, on your web pages.
I often wish I could get an opinion from another cyclist when shopping online for cycling gear, gels or spare parts. With the enormous choice of products out there, it’s not always easy to make a decision.
From the brand’s perspective, you don’t want to lose sales from shoppers who are in the mood to buy. You don’t want your shoppers to click away from your online store to look for help and answers. With community advice you can offer your shoppers peer advice within your online store, when your shoppers are ready to spend money.
If we could bottle passion, we’d give it directly to our clients. Luckily community-powered technology does a good job too and it allows us to track the results too.
Anyway, I could talk about my exchanges with community-powered online stores for hours, but I’ll stop here because there’s lots of resources you can dive into without having to read my post for hours. I’m linking 2 below, but if you want more industry-specific case studies, just shoot me a message on Linkedin.
I’m off to cycle now!
Love, Jutta
About Jutta
Jutta, Head of Marketing at GUURU, works closely with brands that involve their passionate brand communities in their online stores. As a cycling enthusiast, she loves connecting with others and pedalling through different countries.
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