Spalding Maximizes Online Merchandising Efforts

7/26/2007

According to Bigresearch, 87 percent of nearly 7,500 respondents perform online research before making offline purchases. Research also shows that customers are more likely to stay longer, view more information and ultimately purchase more on a retail Web site when the sought after product information is presented in a compelling format.

Spalding, the world's largest basketball equipment manufacturer and supplier and a division of Russell Corporation, has worked hard to develop effective, interactive marketing content for a number of its branded products, including its innovative Never Flat basketballs and soccer balls and its portable and high-end backboard systems. Up until now, the challenge for Spalding has been how to easily get this content in front of the eyes of its customers, many of whom do their research and shopping on retail Web sites.

Spalding turned to WebCollage and its turnkey Web content integration solution to integrate complete, up-to-date marketing content to its retail partners' Web sites. WebCollage's patented ASP-solution enables Spalding to offer its partners enhanced online content designed to educate customers about Spalding's products and help differentiate it from competing products. WebCollage's solution also helps Spalding to seamlessly syndicate its rich marketing content to retail partners' Web sites, maintaining the retail sites' "look-and-feel" while providing the latest, most comprehensive marketing content from Spalding.

"We are committed to providing consumers with a dynamic, experiential on-line shopping experience that educates them on our product attributes and functions. With WebCollage we're able to use technology, rich content and Web capabilities to showcase Spalding's authentic line of backboard systems and products. We want to help facilitate the on-line purchase process," says Bob Llewellyn, director of Consumer Marketing at Spalding.