The Course Expands to eCommerce for American Golf

The good old club and ball sport. Humans have been hitting tiny balls with long sticks for centuries. Like all of today’s sports, the origins of golf-like games go back to antiquity. But the sport we know today as golf traces its history back to the 15th century in Scotland.

Golf is also a sport that has resisted modernization – at times kicking and screaming into modernity. Its clubhouse doors are still being opened to women – in fact the oldest golf club in the world, Muirfield Golf Club in Scotland, only opened its doors to women in 2017.

The same has also been true of the commercial side of golf, which has been slower to lift off than other sports such as football and basketball.

And one of those brands that are taking golf into ecommerce is American Golf.

American Golf is a golf retailer. But don’t be fooled by its name. It’s actually the largest golf retailer in Europe. It has around 100 stores scattered across Britain and has in stock everything from irons and putters to balls, shoes, clothing and more.

Knowing the growing importance, and frankly necessity, of online commerce, American Golf took in the pristine green landscape and decided to do something about how to stretch its operations.

It plugged in Salesforce Commerce Cloud to reach a whole new customer base in multiple new regions and through multiple channels. The British-based company swung into other European markets after its home market had been stagnating for quite a while. Going online increased their continental presence and success followed.

“We simply didn’t have the capacity to meet the brands’ goals for breaking into new territories and delivering an omnichannel experience,” said its head of ecommerce Pat Foley.

To help scale the growing amount of traffic that hit the site not only of American Golf but its partner company Onlinegolf, Salesforce Commerce Cloud was the solution to pick up their site and drive their momentum to reach their goals.

“Thanks to Commerce Cloud,” added Pat, “both brands have grown their online presence.”

Cloud-based and scalable, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the ideal ecommerce solution for big brands and retailers that have complex issues. For example, a company that operates in multiple countries, with their own languages and tax jurisdictions. Many platforms don’t handle this setup well, but SFCC was purpose built for such situations, such as automated translations and the ability to change almost anything depending on the jurisdiction.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud also has the ability to integrate into complex systems and legacy ERP systems, as well as try out A/B and multivariate testing, which can then be shared with marketers to dig out some valuable data to create better quality digital experiences and campaigns.

And so with SFCC’s broad global capabilities as well as speed to market, American Golf not only broke into new markets but quickly built a strong presence across the continent and launched a whole new British site.

In addition to helping them expand into new regions at a fast pace, SFCC strengthened their ability to hit new channels. For example, both brands have been able to boost their performance and increase customer satisfaction with new mobile-first initiatives.

PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware) development teams. Contact us to see how we can work together.