OUR STORY
going
virAl
How the Worldwide
Golf Shops website has
evolved over the past
15 years to best serve
the needs of golfers
F
ifteen years ago, when Worldwide
Golf Shops first launched its
website, the world of e-commerce
was vastly different than it is today.
Amazon.com still sold mostly books and
hadn't yet turned a profit. Annual retail
sales online were less than one percent of
what they are now, and buying golf
equipment online was nearly unheard of.
As that landscape has changed, so too
has the website for Worldwide Golf
Shops. The site supports all six of the
Worldwide Golf Shops brands – Roger
Dunn Golf Shops, The Golf Mart, Van's
Golf Shops, Golfers' Warehouse, Edwin
Watts Golf Shops and Uinta Golf – and
is constantly evolving to best serve cus-
tomers' needs and how they shop for
golf equipment, accessories and apparel.
"Because e-commerce is integrating
very closely with brick and mortar re-
tail, and the line between online sales
and store sales is becoming blurred, we
realized we needed to evolve our strat-
egy," said David Lowe, the E-commerce
Director for Worldwide Golf Shops.
"What began as a source of information
about products has really become a way
for golf consumers to buy goods.
"With golf clubs specifically, though,
still only about 15 percent of purchases
are made online, because people want to
feel the clubs in their hands and get
properly fitted. Our goal is to provide a
much broader and deeper source of in-
formation for our customers, as well as
an easy place for them to transact if they
choose to do that."
While Lowe and his team constantly
tinker with the website to make it as
user-friendly as possible, they are also
working on a significant overhaul of the
C O N T I N U E D
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