Recession? What Recession Holiday Sales Up 72% for Online Golf Shoe and Apparel Retailer

Online retailer Golf Locker has bucked the current economic downturn. By partnering with e-commerce web development partner A Far Site Better, the golf merchandiser saw sales soar by 72 percent over the previous holiday season. Golf Locker CEO and owner PGA Pro Bart Patterson attributes much of his success to the site's easy-to-use, innovative web technology.

Tampa, FL (PRWEB) January 19, 2010

Defying the current economic doldrums, Golf Locker (http://www.golflocker.com) and their e-commerce web development partner A Far Site Better (http://www.afarsitebetter.com) created a strategy and an array of online technologies that enabled Golf Locker to increase 2009 holiday sales by 72 percent over the prior year.

"We're ecstatic about this year's holiday sales," said Golf Locker CEO and PGA Pro Bart Patterson, who opened the online store in 1999. "It was a fitting end to 2009 as our online sales increased an astonishing 59 percent (on top of a 21 percent rise for 2008) while similar golf retailers' comparable, same-store sales were down 8.5 percent for the year.

"Customers consistently tell us that it's our site's navigation and unique shopping features that make it so easy to find what they're looking for compared to the competition," says Patterson. This has become especially important as older golfers, who tend to be less Internet savvy, buy more online. "It is no surprise that the higher the overall shopping experience, the more confident a first time buyer will be buying from us, which has always been a big priority of ours.With 90 percent of our customers purchasing merchandise during their first visit, this is a huge reason for our success."

Success Is In the Details
A Far Site Better is no stranger to helping Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business companies maximize their sales. For the past 10 years, the high-end web development firm has been customizing its already feature-rich and easy-to-use Far Better e-commerce platform to accommodate different retailers' unique needs. "Together we analyze the situation, interview key stakeholders, review the competitive landscape and develop a plan of attack," said Steven Laff, A Far Site Better Principal. "The result is a customized application that combines our e-commerce, Internet development and user experience expertise with the client's knowledge of their particular market."
Patterson identified three A Far Site Better technologies that have helped Golf Locker grow:

•     Popup Product View™
•     Enhanced search engine optimization automation
•     SuperSearch™

Popup Product View is a full-length, full-featured product detail page that instantly appears on top of a website's category page listing, which can often be a dauntingly long list of available products.

The beauty of Popup Product View is the website's category page listing is always visible to the shopper so they never lose their place when looking at a lot of product choices. The search-engine friendly Popup Product View allows customers to see all of a product's information at one time. Shoppers can instantly make a buying decision without ever leaving the page.

A Far Site Better uses its extensive experience in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to keep Golf Locker ahead of its competitors. "We have complete control over every single element that impacts search engine ranking," states Patterson. "Additionally, there are a lot of totally automated tools built into the platform that help make every page on the Golf Locker website optimized for maximum search engine visibility as soon as it goes live."

"When a web user searches for a highly competitive term such as golf shoes, we are at least ranked No. 5 on the first page out of more than four million results," said Patterson. "I used to spend tens of thousands of dollars a month on pay-per-click advertising. Now I spend a tiny fraction of that running my entire online business on the A Far Site Better e-commerce platform. I allot almost nothing to pay-per-click searches because the natural search engine optimization technologies are so strong."

Once consumers arrive at Golf Locker from a search engine they have an easy time finding what they want because of SuperSearch. SuperSearch helps shoppers find merchandise that meets their individual customers requirements. SuperSearch allows visitors to quickly find products that have the exact attributes they want, such as gender, manufacturer, shoe or apparel size, color, material, etc. Better still, this functionality is completely controlled by the Golf Locker staff. In minutes, without any programming, site administrators can add any new spec or parameter to SuperSearch, instantly improving their shoppers' ability to find exactly what they are looking for.

"SuperSearch is so much better than any competitors' method for helping customer's find what they want, it's scary," Patterson said.

Meanwhile, Golf Locker continues to outpace other golf merchandisers during the longest economic downswing since the Great Depression. "We just keep investing in customer experience technologies and our sales continue to increase from year to year," said Patterson, referring to the trend that began in early 2006. "That's why we've made it through the recession."

About Golf Locker
Founded in 1999, GolfLocker.com, formerly known as GolfEquipmentCloseouts.com, is the premier online store for the Golf Locker Retail Superstore in Tampa, Florida. PGA Professional, Bart Patterson, is the President and CEO of Golf Locker. The site and store have a staff of trained experts with decades of golfing experience to serve customer needs.
About A Far Site Better, LLC

A Far Site Better, winner of the 2009 Web Marketing Association Award for Best Shopping Site, are experts at improving, revitalizing, or (in some cases) resuscitating a company's online profile.
The strength of A Far Site Better lies in their ability to deliver highly personal attention, along with their award-winning Far Better e-commerce platform, which is customized to meet the true needs of each of their clients and their customers. A Far Site Better has been featured in several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, eWeek, The New York Times and Internet Retailer.

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