Image from: Ski / Shutterstock
To me, there is no better feeling than flying down a mountain on a pair of skis. I will always love skiing, even if the temperature reads below zero and my feet freeze (when I forget my toe warmers). With the mountain constantly on my mind, I thought it would be good to channel my obsession into looking at data from the Skiing/Snowboarding Enthusiast category on Compete PRO.
The Ski and Snowboard industry is generally at the mercy of the change in seasons. When the weather gets warmer and the snow melts, ski season unfortunately has to come to an end, for most places in the US at least. But when the weather gets cold and the snow starts, skiing can once again commence. And each year, nearly every online market share metric begins to steadily increase from October- as the weather gets colder and the start of ski season rapidly approaches- until December.
However, we see that each year the market share metrics start to decline after December. I thought this was rather interesting given the fact that the season is still in full swing and there is great skiing through January till even the end of March. However, while metrics such as Unique Visitors peak in December for the category, UV’s are actually higher during the months of descent – January through March (7.2 to 5.5 million) – than ascent – September through November (2.9 to 5.4 million).
One reason for the peak in December is that a lot of people may be going online to purchase skis or gear in December, either because it is the beginning of the season, or because of the holiday season. People may flock at the start, but once they’ve purchase what they need they may not be compelled to return to certain websites for the rest of the season.
Backcountry.com (#1), an online winter sports retailer, claimed the top position on the mountain for January unique visitors (UV’s). The website made up a little under half of the 5.3 million total UV’s for the category. Despite month-over-month drops – consistent with category trends – year-over-year growth was positive for most of traffic and loyalty metrics. Unique visitors rose by 76% and visits went up by 155% over the year, meaning new people are coming to the site and returning more often. Developing a large audience is important, but creating a loyal audience is arguably paramount. The good news for Backcountry is that both the size of audience and the loyalty of the audience are on the rise, which could lead to increased conversions.
Will ski and snowboard sites ever be able to stay relevant to consumers in the off-season? Major sales do occur during non-peak months, so this is one area that websites should try to capitalize on. Developing strong content and getting users to engage is, of course, always another source to remain relevant. As of now though, it appears that the sunshine and warm weather makes a lot of consumers forget about the trails.
