RetailT
echnology
to be seen for us and the consumer,” he added. Gathercole notes that from time of launch, the number of bookings have increased week on week. “We are doing over 200 bookings
now and the conversion from our three different types of appointments has also been strong.” The challenge for American Golf is
achieving the right balance so one channel doesn’t cannibalise the other. “We have a lot of visits on American
Golf online, but a lot of people are looking for stores and the conversion on the website is poor, so it’s about making the most out of every single visit,” commented Gathercole. “If people are coming on looking for
store information, we must allow those customers to engage on the website. The biggest challenge of using a booking solution has been not detracting from what we’re trying to do online, which is to sell products too. If someone comes to the site, you obviously want them to purchase,
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but we are also taking them away from the website and into the store. “The main thing for me is capturing
data. If someone comes to the website either to purchase or book an appointment, we capture an email or number so we can get them to shop in- store or online. “We’re not looking at it channel
by channel, but looking at it from a multichannel perspective,” said Gathercole. The sports retailer is already seeing
the benefits of its BookingBug solution in various different ways. Recently, American Golf made iPads available in every store, where staff can perform bookings for customers in-store on the iPad. “We also have a plan to run a national
(UK and Ireland) Golf Competition and all the bookings will go through BookingBug, so people can just go online and book into the American Golf Club Championship.” American Golf also plans to sell its
PGA pro lessons online to a wider audience in the next 12 months. Currently, those
can be booked in-store but not from the website. “These initiatives are things we couldn’t achieve without BookingBug. Gathercole is keen to state that the loyalty scheme in general is about giving people golf benefits. “I didn’t want to launch a scheme that was giving people 20% off car hires or 10% off hotels. “The key to this for us is being able to
do exactly what the Pro shops can do and to become a real alternative to the pro golf shop. So now we can sell lessons, you can book tee times and buy golf equipment from us. You get money off golf related thing too.” “Retailers that spent the last decade
working hard to become competitive online are now turning their attention back to their physical high street space,” concluded Glenn Shoosmith, chief executive officer and founder of BookingBug. “They are asking a big question: how
can they use it to gain advantages the online-only crowd can’t?”
Autumn 2014 47
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