Building successful businesses online.
Surfstitch.com
Online Retail Success Leads To Store Opening
Scoop:
Looking for the latest in surf gear and stylish surfing accessories for men, women and kids? Meet SurfStitch. The Australian supplier carries a host of popular sports brands, including Billabong, Rip Curl and Volcom, as well as many unique and hard-to-find makes.
Operating the number-one online surf store Down Under, SurfStitch maintains a sophisticated, nationwide ebusiness as well as a flagship store in Sydney.
Says Lex Pedersen, CEO SurfStitch:
We dreamed of becoming Australia’s biggest surf gear hub and ECommerce Partners helped to turn this dream into a reality. They understood our vision, our target audience and our business, and they came through for us 100% -- every step of the way. Lex Pedersen, CEO SurfStitch
Story:
SurfStitch’s success story unfolded in reverse, starting with the creation of an ecommerce site and evolving, more recently, with the launch of the company’s first brick-and-mortar store.
It all began in a backyard shed, where a few surf enthusiasts came together to lament the sad state of surf supplies in Australia, and dream up a better solution. They envisioned an online store that would carry a wide variety of brands, colors and sizes, offer surfers from all over Australia an engaging forum to connect and communicate, and supply them with exactly the products they wanted, when they wanted them.
Once the idea for SurfStitch was born, the entrepreneurs looked for a partner that would not only be Internet and ecommerce savvy but would also understand the specifics of their target audience. That’s when ECommerce Partners entered the picture.
Solution:
Together ECommerce Partners and SurfStitch devised a strategy to rapidly create awareness for the new brand, establish www.surfstitch.com as the premier destination for surfers in Australia, gather a loyal, ever-growing customer base, and develop a lucrative ebusiness.
To achieve all these goals, ECommerce Partners created a sophisticated ecommerce website specifically tailored to surfer needs. Typically, very active, on the ball, product- savvy personalities, surfers expect to be sold to online, but, in the process, they also want to be entertained, informed, and connected with like-minded individuals.
www.suftstitch.com happily complies. The site includes over 5,000 items, each easy to find by category, brand, logo or description. The home page always features the newest goods as well as special promotions. Multiple product photos with zoom and 3D imaging help with purchase decisions. An outstanding customer support, including live chat, and a truly simple, fast checkout process further enhance the shopping experience.
To build community and create buzz, SurfStitch now also runs a Facebook group, sends out regular newsletters, and partners with high-profile brands like Coca-Cola and Vodafone for popular promotions, sweepstakes, and sports competitions. SurfStitch also emphasizes social responsibility, sponsoring charity events and allowing shoppers to donate to their favorite causes upon checkout.
Fully integrated with the physical point of sales, the ecommerce site is equipped with a complete back office including inventory management and a shipping service integrated with the Australian Postal Service.
Success:
SurfStitch’s ebusiness was developed in just under six months and turned into an instant success with hundreds of thousands of visits per month and a high conversion rate. Today, it is recognized as one of Australia’s largest ecommerce sites, as well as its number-one destination for surfing gear. Leveraging its online success and nationwide brand recognition, SurfStitch recently opened a flagship store brimming with the newest, coolest gear in the heart of Sydney's surfing Mecca of the northern beaches.
Never tired of exploring new shores, SurfStitch plans to ad advanced ecommerce features, including Auto Complete, Advanced Search, a Feedback tool, and a Traffic Generator, in the next few months. Providing ongoing support and maintenance, site hosting, custom cart functionalities, and analytics, ECommerce Partners is looking forward to assisting SurfStitch in its upcoming online endeavors.
Services:
To date, ECommerce Partners has provided SurfStitch with the following services:
- ECommerce Development Module for Custom Cart Features
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- Unlimited Catalogue Management
- Secure Shopping Cart
- Promotion & Marketing
- Payment Processing
- Gift Certificate
- Shipping & Fulfillment
- Detailed Site Traffic & Sales Reports
- CRM
- Customer Account Management
- Product Zoom Feature
- Analytics
- Additional Checkout Options
