I’m a competitive cyclist. Sometimes the competition is a formal race. More often it’s a challenge a friend has thrown out to me which simply requires me to “finish.” Since I ride over 300 days a year, I have become an aficionado of all things cycling, including online stores.
I’ve had positive shopping experiences on numerous gear sites. The one I wanted to talk about here relates to great marketing in email communication, specifically the Real Cyclist site. The emails were clearly designed to tap into the spirit of the passionate roadie.
When I made my second purchase, the email identified me as a return shopper: “Now that you’re a member of the family, your order will be bumped to the top of the queue.” Nice service, I thought. About two hours later, I received shipping confirmation. “Hey, they weren’t kidding about bumping my order to the top of the queue.” Even better, the confirmation let me know that since this very hot gear was on its way, “I was now free to stalk the postman.” Email communications customized for the target customer – for all of my online shopping, this is the best example of messaging to a distinct customer segment I’ve ever received as a shopper.
This site also does a great job of fostering customer interaction through a real-time “peloton” program which assigns points for helpful reviews, pictures, questions and answers etc. Those reviewers with the most points have the highest rankings. Rankings change daily. Again, a creative approach to encourage product reviews that makes sense for this set of target customers.
Disclosure: I am a “Top 500 Gear Guru” on this site and rank even higher when compared to others who have rated women’s gear.
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