Hole19 has launched a brand new online store in its home market of the UK. The golf technology company has opened the positioning to brand partners. It plans to increase the marketplace to shoppers in continental Europe later this 12 months.
The platform is designed to attach established and emerging golf brands with the Hole19 audience, with a business model that’s claimed to be revolutionary within the golf space. The corporate guarantees visitors “their very own personal pro shop” and prominently highlights the worth of personalized product recommendations on its homepage: “Unique to you and your game.”
Brand partnerships
The marketplace stems from a big strategic shift, based on Head of Ecommerce Chris Somerton, with a key deal with brand partnerships: “Our latest ecommerce platform empowers golfers with a totally personalized shopping experience, and our partners, by leveraging a industrial model that puts control firmly back where it belongs, within the hands of brands.”
‘The platform puts control firmly back to brands.’
Hole19, which claims to be the biggest community of energetic golfers on this planet with over 4 million members, guarantees brand partners full control over products and costs. The aim is to supply a particularly big selection of products, from tees to simulators, by eliminating barriers to entry. There is no such thing as a cost for brands to integrate with or trade on the platform. They will expect to receive “unique holistic” customer insights. “We are able to provide brands the means of recent growth in our game”, states CEO and founder Anthony Douglas.
Vertical marketplace
With its platform, Hole19 taps into the growing popularity of vertical marketplaces, where shoppers can find every part inside a market segment. These marketplaces capture business by addressing specific customer needs that generalist marketplaces struggle to satisfy.
After the launch in the UK, Hole19’s marketplace can be introduced in continental Europe, planned by the top of 2024. The US will follow next 12 months.