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Why Product Companies MUST Master E-Commerce...NOW!



The golf product market is one of the most competitive markets within the golf industry. It is a market that exists because of the golfer's insatiable desire to perfect their game. It is this pursuit that presents great opportunity for golf training aids and equipment products.

If you've been watching the retail side of our industry you will notice the trend; more retail stores are closing and the difficulty of placing product is increasing. If you want to sell golf products, you must master e-commerce!

If you are looking to build a business selling golf products you must understand 2 axioms.

  1. Simplicity, Results or Recommendations Sell Your Product: One thing that holds true for successful golf training aid and equipment products is that they deliver a simple solution that can easily be communicated to the golfer. Now, for the training aids that are a bit more involved, thorough, statistical results and professional recommendation can support the sell through online. If your training aid is not a simple science than you must show the science to support how your product can benefit a golfer.

  2. New Golf Products are Perfect for E-commerce: It is extremely tough to get your one-off training aid or custom putter on the retail shelves and it’s not for lack of trying. Because the golf product market is so dynamic and most often one off golf products are developed by small or start up businesses, retailers are less likely to take a gamble on these concept products. The one proven way to get your golf product serious attention from retailers is to establish solid online sales. Showing an online sales track record and a high consumer demand is the best leverage you have when negotiating with retailers so focus on e-commerce first.

Open The Best Possible Golf Shop

You can have the most amazing and most effective golf product on the market but show me a DIY website, poor graphics, inferior product images, a cumbersome shopping experience and I will show you a business that is destined for mediocrity at best. Your online image is your sales representative to the golfer.

Imagine your website as a sales person; is it pleasing to the eyes, informative, easy to understand, capable of engaging, does it represent your product in the way that gives you the best opportunity to close business? Even if you answer yes to all the above – you owe it to yourself to have your website reviewed by a professional. Let me be completely clear – asking your friends and relatives for their feedback is not going to help you.

With Golf Pulp we employ a 25 point checklist to ensure an e-commerce website is built to be the Best Possible Shop. Of course you will want to test and adjust along the way but make sure you are putting your best possible sales representative out to attract, inform and close sales.

Here are just a few key elements from our 25 point checklist:

  • Key Benefits - Are key benefits designed to stand out and do they address the problem your product solves?

  • Compelling Content - Is your website content written in a way that engages the golfer, is it convincing sales copy?

  • Simple Checkout - Is your BUY NOW process easy to navigate, how many steps does it take and can those steps be reduced?

  • Lead Generation Forms - What if a website user leaves the site without purchase? Is there a way to move traffic into a lead funnel?

  • Cart Abandonment - Does your website track cart abandonment or incomplete orders? Do you have a system in place to convert/complete incomplete orders?

  • Product Photography - Is your website using professional quality photography containing isolated product shots as well as live imagery with your product in use?

Getting The Most From Your Online Shop

So how do you know you have the Best Possible Shop? I would always encourage you to consult a professional marketer with experience marketing golf products. A website developer is going to take a design eye to your website while a marketer will be judging your site on it’s ability to convert traffic. My team frequently evaluates websites and provides a detailed critique based on a website's ability to convert traffic – there is simply no other criterion that means more.

If you are using a shopping cart platform like WP WooCommerce, Shopify, OpenCart, Big Commerce…. you will want to closely monitor the conversion ratio based on your marketing events and month over month. A strong e-commerce website will provide 4%-6% conversion on total traffic but we have created sites that yield upwards of 8%. If your website is producing less than 3% conversion then it’s time to speak with a marketing professional that understands how to sell golf products online.

If you are running a website that lacks built in conversion reporting you must rely on Google Analytics Goals which can be established to track website traffic to a shopping cart page. Even if you are running on a shopping cart platform I would highly suggest that you establish GOALS through Google Analytics. With this tool you will be able to get a detailed view of not only the conversion ratio but the traffic paths and content that is leading to higher conversion.

Need more information on how to set this up? Email info@golfpulpmedia.com

Building a better shop is a work in progress – always strive to increase the conversion ratio.

Need Help Mastering E-Commerce?


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