My sister has been moaning for years, "why do all the great golf apparel companies only focus on their men's collections?" She's always had a point, when you think great golf apparel companies, Fairway & Greene, Dunning Golf and Bobby Jones all come to mind before most women's brands.
I recently spent a couple of years as the Texas rep of golf clothing line and gained a better sense of how difficult it is to gain access and a little shelf space in a small golf shop. Most clubs will only carry three or four brands tops. Resorts maybe a few more...
My third point is that ecommerce sales for golf equipment continues to rise. We've seen it in our business and most of the retail reports for the holiday season seem to be singing the same tune, more people are shunning the typical bricks and mortar shopping experience and doing business online.
The reason I mention all of the above is that Trigelle, an incredible apparel company for women, just announced today that they are selling direct on their new site www.trigelle.com. For those of you who aren't familiar with the brand, it's eco-friendly and the perfect mix between performance and fashion. Plus, it's run by a group of young, professional, and very driven partners/friends who often play as hard as they work.
I think you'll see more and more golf companies selling direct. Dunning Golf announced their new direct to consumer sales model last week. Callaway, although attempting to do by filling orders through their retail partners are doing it as well.
By establishing pricing at Suggested Retail and having the depth of inventory at their disposal it's just too tempting for these companies to sell direct. Adding a shopping cart to your website isn't nearly as challenging as it used to be and ultimately making 90+ points of margin by cutting out the traditional retailer covers any additional staff necessary to fill the small, individual orders.
Retailers won't love the idea, but ultimately they'll support it, particularly if it helps innovative companies such as Trigelle and Dunning continue to crank out exciting new collections. Without the additional distribution channel these smaller niche companies wouldn't take the creative risks that ultimately lead to innovation. Also, without ecommerce as an additional distribution channel companies cut their production too close to their prebook totals, leaving not much inventory available for fill in orders if a line proves successful.
As an online retailer I love it. The more people that get introduced to these brands that historically can only be found in the most exclusive private clubs and luxurious resorts, the better for all of online retail. I don't necessarily want a bigger piece, but would rather be eating the same percentage of a much bigger pie.
