Hoping to build its fishing and marine clientele, The Sportsman’s Guide launched BoatingSavings.com last month.
The e-commerce site, which went up May 30, includes fishing and marine items such as life vests, paddles, rods and reels, as well as items for towing a boat.
“We figure there are a lot of people who own a boat who might be looking to save some money right now, and we could offer them a one-stop shop on the Web,” says Mike Hanson, vice president of Internet at The Sportsman’s Guide. “With that URL and the name, it offers what those boaters are searching for online.”
Hanson says Sportsman’s Guide would promote the site online as well as with newspaper display ads. BoatingSavings.com is relying on paid and natural search to draw prospects to that site, and it will eventually try to make them customers of the parent title.
BoatingSavings.com’s inventory is that of The Sportsman’s Guide’s fishing and marine departments. So why start a separate site? “It was an area we had depth and breadth, and we wanted to market it under a URL that would fit,” Hanson says.
Instead of sifting through The Sportsman’s Guide for fishing and marine products, the user can click on categories direct from the new site’s front page. It helps that Sportsman’s Guide has considerable inventory in the category.
“Before you get into something like this, you have to look at your product mix,” Hanson says. “If you have just two types of fishing rods and a jacket, it’s not going to work.”