Wunderman Thompson’s The Future Shopper Report 2022 found 5 trends that are really relevant to golf shops:
- Over half of spending is now online. Customers became comfortable with technology and demanding digital products and services.
- Poor experiences online are no longer acceptable. They demand very fast delivery, easy returns, and availability.
- Innovation is a key requirement of customers. They expect innovative retail experiences like cashless payment, new store formats, etc. Use augmented and virtual reality to improve your product displays and provide a more heightened “try-on” experience.
- Social commerce‘s importance is growing. People are enjoying buying on social media platforms. Just in the US, eMarketer is expecting 145 million USD in spending in 2022. The leader in social commerce is Facebook. There will be 15.1 million social buyers in the UK in 2022.
- Marketplaces are growing: they give the best online experience to both B2B and B2C consumers. they are used across the 3 stages of the purchasing process: inspiration, search, and purchase.
Golf shops must prepare for this as soon as possible. We can argue that the golf club business is a people business but customer behavior has changed a LOT during the lockdown. I do not expect they will go back to who they were before 2020.
That’s why it’s good to observe the latest product from Golf Genius Software. Golf Genius has just launched its ‘Golf Shop’ product which will help to create new levels of efficiencies for PGA Professionals worldwide.
This is not a totally new Golf Genius product. The new feature is the integration of RepSpark (a B2B e-commerce platform).
I am expecting golf retailing marketplaces’ – like RepSpark – importance and role will gain momentum very soon since they are offering real-time purchasing opportunities with multiple brands. They can even offer sales automation too.
Not to forget that you as a golf shop owner or manager RepSpark-like marketplaces can ease your work (convenient: 24/7) + and speed up the purchasing procedure too.
Golf Genius Software – Golf shop product – details
With functions to manage special orders, club repairs, demo and rental sets, staff scheduling and customer profiling, the Golf Shop product combines numerous features that enable golf retailers to deliver greater customer value, save time, and create more revenue:
- Special order tracking,
- Demo club tracking & barcode scanning,
- Stock and pre-book order tracking,
- RepSpark integration,
- Golf shop central: A multi-widget portal that allows members to update their member profiles, see current and past orders, request a demo or club repair, and access online order forms.
- Member surveys & profiles,
- Club repair tracking,
- Staff scheduling,
- Mobile app – Access member information, manage demo clubs and control special orders directly from your mobile phone.
- Automated communication: Automatically inform members through personalized text messages and emails. Enhance their experience and improve your efficiency.