Reference no: EM131458573

Question: When professional skier Bryce Phillips began selling closeout ski equipment out of his garage in 2001, he was hoping to make a little extra money to fund his ski vacations. Things went well with the first garage sale, and soon he had a few employees and started selling snowboard, skateboard, and wakeboarding gear. Almost by accident, at age 20, Phillips had a company on his hands. He pulled some equity out of his house-and online retailer Evo was born. The company grew to 40 employees, then 60. Revenues came to nearly $6 million. Evogear.com became known worldwide by pros and amateurs alike looking for good deals on great stuff. They now offer all the top brands, closeouts, and used gear for every level and budget. All this success is quite surprising when you consider that buying skis or snowboards isn't the kind of thing generally done online or through a catalog. To get fully outfitted can cost $500 to $1,000, and most people need some expert help with their purchase.

Through the design of the site and Phillips' desire to create a community for like-minded people, rather than simply another online discounter, Evogear.com is shredding the competition. "Well, we want it to be functional, number one," says Molly Hawkins, affiliate program manager at Evo. "If you go to some of our competitors' sites, some of them look really cool" but, she says, "you try and navigate around their sites, they're not as intuitive." Evogear.com is easy to use and does look cool, but adding value for the shopper is key to their business. The site offers product reviews, user accounts with all your past and current orders and preferences, tons of links to affiliate sites, events, blogs- pretty much everything you would want in a Web site, or a brick-and- mortar shop. "Aside from that," Hawkins says, "the About Us* page has played a huge role." Evo has, from the beginning, wanted to create a community for lovers of water and snow sports, and the About Us page really offers the customer an "in" to the company; their mission, values, personal pages and video clips by each employee. Customers love the idea that they can virtually "meet" their customer service person or buyer or Phillips himself. Hawkins believes this helped to legitimize the company in the beginning.

"People would get excited to find that the person that they're talking to or the people that they're buying from are actual users of this gear that we're selling," she says. Being seen as legit and trustworthy is paramount in the land of e-commerce. You spend weeks searching for the best price on that new digital camera or gaming system and when it arrives, if it arrives, it was not what you thought you were buying. Often, there is little you can do. The people at Evo know where you're coming from and want to make sure every purchase is stress-free. They have an easy return policy: just let them know what the problem is, from buyer's remorse to a box of splintered skis, and they'll make the switch. Once an order is placed, Evo's distribution center jumps to attention. Most orders are shipped fast, within a day or two of the order. If you're not in a hurry, they'll ship it ground for free, or overnight via a partnership with FedEx. Trust, value, and personal service are the key elements in Evo's success, but word of mouth only gets you so far.

Advertising is difficult for an e-business such as Evo, where keeping it simple with low overhead and a no-frills annual budget is what makes them able to pass the discounts on to their customers. Like many Web sites, they offer an affiliate program that places ads or links on other Web sites to drive traffic back to Evo. An affiliate program or pay-per-click program pays owners of other sites every time a user clicks on an ad. In addition to paying for each click, Evo sends a "thank you" gift of 12 percent of each completed sale at evogear.com originating from the affiliate site. To protect their brand, remain authentic to their consumers, and remain in good standing with their suppliers, Molly Hawkins and her team lay out some ground rules for each potential affiliate. Their site must be well designed, easy to navigate, and, most importantly, must not contain any references to gambling, sexually explicit material, hate speech or racist content or any other inappropriate material. Sounds obvious, but being inadvertently connected with the most obscure, unseemly Web site could mean the end of their business.

1. Aside from offering good prices, how does evogear.com offer value to the consumer?

2. Evo has opened a large brick-and-mortar store/community art space in Seattle, Washington. Go to culture.evogear.com/ category/seattle/ to learn more about what the store offers. Do you think this store will distract or enhance the Web site? Consider potential channel conflicts, pricing strategy, convenience, and consumer behavior in your answer.