Altitude Sports uses catalogues to climb to new heights with customers

Montreal-based Altitude Sports is a leading online retailer of high-end technical apparel, outerwear, footwear and gear. From the city streets to the wilds, its products meet the fashion demands of its urban customers and stand up to the elements of Canada’s extreme weather.

With more than 90,000 products from over 400 Canadian and global brands, the company has been growing quickly since focusing its energy on ecommerce.

Just as its product line changes with seasonal and fashion trends, its customer retention strategy has also evolved in the increasingly competitive direct-to-consumer retail market.

Remaining connected

In recent years, Altitude Sports closed its last brick-and-mortar store and transformed into a pure-play ecommerce retailer. At that time, the company was using only online marketing communication channels to achieve its customer acquisition and retention goals. But now, it faced a future without a physical store presence to entice shopper exploration or create a memorable environment for brand experience. That meant the lifestyle brand needed a new approach to keep the brand at peak performance in a saturated category and competitive digital environment.

Company executives knew the loss of a physical presence would alter its customers’ psychology of shopping and compromise two fundamental growth principles – physical and mental availability.

That’s when Altitude Sports began experimenting with mini catalogues to fill the gap and enhance customer experience.

Finding ways to maintain connections

There isn’t a more relevant example of direct mail’s effectiveness than the catalogue – a perfect complement to digital content, ecommerce and physical stores.

Look books, style guides, wish books, lifestyle publications, handbooks and “magalogues” differentiate themselves in oversaturated digital spaces. Especially when embraced by direct-to-consumer brands with no physical footprint, catalogues bring brand and conversion into perfect harmony by providing an emotional and physical primer for brand response.

Integrating catalogues into retention channels showcases how they aren’t just for acquisition but can also keep people engaged and increase customer value.

As people have less and less time to go to physical stores to browse and discover, catalogues have the power to create highly visual and engaging marketing. Whether dropping a mini catalogue before peak season or using a gift guide to take the sting out of searching, there’s a format that suits most brand goals.

Using catalogues to capture attention

For Altitude Sports, they began experimenting with mini catalogues and Canada Post Personalized Mail^TM to optimize the effectiveness of its customer retention strategy.

Making the most of the storytelling possibilities and creative space offered by catalogues, the company used bold visuals and compelling product descriptions to capture customers’ attention. It also coupled each standout mini catalogue with a specific targeting strategy.

For example, in the lead-up to a critical Black Friday-Cyber Monday period, Altitude Sports sent mini catalogues to 160,000 select customers, a targeted list that included clients who did not purchase 120 days beforehand.

While the company mainly uses email marketing to speak to its frequently purchasing customers, it integrates the physical component of mailed catalogues when working to retain less frequent customers by encouraging repeat purchases.

Driving impressive results

For that Black Friday-Cyber Monday period, the mini catalogues combined with segmented targeting yielded a 4.2% reactivation rate within 30 days after the customer received the mini catalogue.

Since the online-only pivot, the retailer has seen incredible annual growth, including an astounding 80-85% growth in the months following the ecommerce shift. Catalogues have been, and continue to be, a key part of that effort.

“It’s not just about a discount. The seasonal catalogues are a reminder that it’s time to order from us. They help keep us top of mind with customers ready to purchase. It helps us reactivate clients,” said co-CEO Maxime Dubois, who calls the reactivation rate “very satisfying.”

The success also led to the brand further embracing the value of physical media to enhance presence in the home and overall brand experience. In addition to mini catalogues, Altitude Sports now produces a high-end coffee table magazine twice a year, in the spring and the fall, for its high-value customers.

Dubois adds that the magazine – made from 100% recycled paper – is also a great opportunity to tell the stories of the trips the company’s teams take to learn more about the brands it carries, to places like Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea and the Rockies.

“Most of our clients come to the site with something in mind,” Dubois said. “But with the magazine they can discover new products, brands and trends. We don’t show prices. It’s different from a shopping perspective – it’s a discovery perspective.”

All told, the company’s share-of-heart strategy is all about encouraging customers to better know the Altitude Sports story and reinforce brand affinity – and it works best with mail at the heart of it.

“If you’re only putting your money into one channel, you’re missing an opportunity,” Dubois said. “When looking at customer retention, people who know you and your brand react really well when you send them something special through the mail.