How to Save the Great American Golf Shop

Written By: Tony Covey

Some of you had suggested that our coverage of the industry has been a bit too negative lately. I’m not sure what to tell you. It’s not like we’re making this stuff up as we go.

Dick’s laid off 500 PGA Pros and is scaling back it’s golf business (you could make a case that the latter is a positive). TaylorMade is having a lousy year. They’ve cut staff, closed Adams HQ, and it may not be done yet. Callaway has successfully raised its average selling price and increased margins. By most reasonable accounts it’s having a comparatively good year…and by good I mean it was only off 8% in Q2.

There’s a whole bunch of ugly out there right now.

This is not the golden age of the golf equipment business. It’s anything but. Smaller golf manufacturers are telling us it has never been worse than it is right now. Retail managers are telling us much the same thing, and even the most upbeat of industry guys will concede that conditions are challenging. While I don’t particularly embrace my role as harbinger of doom, we don’t think any of this bodes particularly well for your friendly neighborhood golf shop owner.

At the risk of rehashing, let’s briefly run down the list of things working against brick and mortar shops:

• Growing, and arguably unfair competition from online retailers, eBay, and the manufactures themselves.
• Declining margins on hard goods coupled with rapid release cycles and the price cuts that often accompany them.
• Sites like this one put product information at your fingertips. The consumer no longer needs to visit a golf shop to find out what’s new (sorry guys, my bad).
• The continued decline of the American Middle Class and its associated discretionary income.
• Ambivalent consumers who no longer find value in face to face interaction and customer service.
• Ambivalent consumers who don’t believe that custom fitting offers any real benefit.
• Ambivalent consumers who have no reservations about dinging up demo clubs in golf shop hitting bays before buying from an online retailer, eBay, or direct from the manufacturer.

The bottom line is that the manufacturers are evolving. The consumer is evolving…or arguably devolving. Either way it works to the detriment of brick and mortar, and so the retail shop must evolve too.

Despite the rapidly evolving world of the consumer, the average American pro shop looks much the same as it did before the rise of the internet, eBay, and the iPhone. Retail and by extension golf retail, is very different than it was even a decade ago. The status quo is not a sustainable business model within the golf industry. Evolve or become a victim of natural selection. Those are the options.

Solving the Problem

I’m not a huge fan of my previous boss (that’s a subject for another day), but he was really big on the notion that his guys shouldn’t bring him problems. He wanted solutions.

Fair enough, right?

So let’s put our heads together and hammer out a solution.

In the previous article I suggested some pretty obvious (I think they’re obvious anyway) things retailers can do to try and make up for business lost to the internet. If you’ve got the space, sell buckets of balls. Regrip and repair clubs. Give lessons. If you’ve got a launch monitor (and you should), lease largely unsupervised time on it.

If you’ve got the population to support it, follow the lead of the New York Golf Center and others like it, and expand your business to include a true, build-on-site, custom fitting department.

All that sounds great, but my guess…or at least my hope, is that most shops are already doing most or all of the above.

Some have diversified their offerings. Maybe that means selling golf carts. For others it’s getting into the putting green installation business. There are alternative revenue streams, but how can you stay in the club business and still turn a reasonable profit?

With MAP pricing and the clever ways internet retailers can get around it, it’s next to impossible for the local guy to compete on price alone.

What can a golf shop do to entice you turn your back on eBay and the rest of the internet and spend your money locally (since you’re there demoing clubs anyway)?

Would you be more willing to buy locally if your retailer offered:

• Free lie/loft check and adjustment for as long as you own your clubs
• Free annual regripping for as long as you own your clubs (shops on tighter budgets could at least offer free install)
• Discounted range memberships (where applicable)
• A free lesson
• Free launch monitor session with club purchase
• A free round of golf at a local course with every iron purchase

What I’m talking about is offering simple, relatively low cost services that could not only make the consumer think twice before buying online, but that also brings the golfer back to the shop on a regular basis.

Host tech nights to explore new products and new technologies. Educate your customers about all the new drivers and all the new irons. Do it every season…provide refreshments. People…even golfers love refreshments. There isn’t a manufacturer in the business that wouldn’t help you with that. The basic ball flight laws, the role of the shaft…the list of potential ways to reach your local customers is nearly limitless. Any of it could bring golfers to your shop.

Every shop, every location is a bit different, and most definitely the onus is on the retailer to understand his market, identify those services which offer the most value (and get asses through the door) and adapted his business accordingly.

#SaveTheShop

What is your local retailer doing to bring golfers through the door and entice them to spend their money? You tell me (and anyone else paying attention), what other services or promotions could a brick and mortar golf retailer offer in order to earn your business?