Turning a Weakness into a Strength – TheClymb.com

TheClymb is a deep-deal site focused on the outdoor/active market. Offering products for cycling, hiking/outdoors/camping, running, etc…They’ve been around for about a year or so and I’ve purchased a few items from them.

Given they play in the ‘deep-deal’ space they are only accessing inventory that ‘has to move’. You can imagine it would be hard to get a solid stock of the most popular sized men’s and women’s sneakers and boots at all times for all products. It’s probably impossible.

So, knowing that footwear sells, but also knowing that the consumer doesn’t want to browse through a number of product detail pages trying to find what’s in-stock…make the size the primary criteria. Creative from an email today, above. Additionally, below – the category template allows for simple filtering of the 2 dimensions that matter most: gender and size. Note, most merchants split the page itself on gender…

This approach is also highly personalized without having to know the size of the email record’s foot. Self-selection personalization is just as good as 1:1 personalization, just less data-heavy. Try to think of ways to apply this reasoning to your own customer.

They key takeaway here is that the typical path to discovery need not begin at the traditional category type. Maybe the right point of departure is a bit deeper into the pattern. Additionally, when the initial interest is PRICE based (daily deals / deep discount), no need to always separate out men’s and women’s on the category level. Go deep…but go broad!

Some examples from other verticals:

• Travel – offer deals which qualify for special payment terms or financing offers.
• Autos – start with cargo room before talking miles per gallon.
• Dining – merchandise desert options/value before the entrees to get people in the door.

Don’t forget to look further down the criteria set in your consumer’s typical browse/buy pattern…you may want to reorder a few things from time to time.

Climb on,

Jeff