SOUTHPORT, CONNECTICUT —ClubStore.org has been accepted by VGM Club—the nation’s premier club industry member services organization—as the official online pro shop extension offered to their members’ physical golf shop.
Currently, ClubStore operates in 65 clubs – mostly in New England. Now, with the VGM Club partnership, ClubStore will be immediately available to VGM Club’s 3,000+ members in all 50 states – giving them a national presence. This partnership validates that large-scale golf management companies and industry experts see the underlying value of extending the golf-oriented shopping experience for club members into an online environment. They also recognize that retail shopping behavior has changed – last year over 15% of clothing sales were purchased from an online retailer.
"Having a great company like VGM Club see the merit of what we are doing, and asking us to be a resource for their thousands of member golf club and city club properties, indicates that we not only built a superior solution, but that we have also partnered with the right vendors in bringing a big idea to the industry," says Brian Schleifer, CEO of Southport, Conn.-based ClubStore.
Bob Petisi founded ClubStore in 2006 as the online extension for golf pro shops. ClubStore’s mission is to offer club members access to high quality merchandise in categories difficult to inventory in physical golf shops for lack of space and cash as well as risk profile reasons. The company also renews and extends the traditional custom of supporting the golf professional and his or her club with purchases golfers might otherwise make elsewhere.
ClubStore has put hundreds of golf-related merchandise items in numerous categories at golfers’ fingertips. Merchandise includes: business gifts, occasion gifts, art, literature, personalized products, men’s/women’s/children’s apparel, hats, bags and shoes and other accessories plus golf equipment such as bags, headcovers, umbrellas and much more. The golf professional profits from every purchase made by his or her members. Order can be shipped to the home, office or club’s golf shop. www.clubstore.org
"We were pleased with our growth in the New England and New York markets," Schleifer says, "but we were having a hard time finding the right people to represent us in other parts of the country. With the extensive reach of VGM Club, ClubStore is now being introduced to literally thousands of golf clubs and city clubs in all 50 states. We anticipate rapid growth and our systems were built to ramp up quickly. We are confident that we have something very unique, and once we felt we had a foothold, we knew we could see explosive growth."
Founded in 1994, VGM Club is the nation’s premier member service organization for the club industry. VGM Club has more than 450 supplier and distributor partners who offer its 3,000 members volume discounts, improved terms, cash rebates and other incentives for all areas of operations for golf, tennis, yacht, city and athletic clubs. In addition to saving its members thousands of dollars annually, other VGM Club benefits include accredited education seminars, a professional services consulting group, special programs for club members/customers and much more.
ClubStore’s business model benefits everyone in the supply chain. Members now have access to brands their golf shop couldn’t carry. The golf shop owner has a much wider assortment of merchandise without spending money on new inventory and they can continue to serve their membership 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
"We never close," Schleifer says. "The great vendors on our site understand they will be reaching customers that were unable to carry their brands because of the physical and financial constraints of golf shops that are open only for a limited season. Many of our partner clubs are closed for two to four months a year, and now, through ClubStore, these clubs can continue to offer merchandise to their members whether they are in town or at their second homes. We also recognized people like to shop from the comfort of their home or office."
Another big component of ClubStore’s business solution is that the company also provides marketing tools to clubs such as personalized e-mail, promotional marketing program, point of sale and various club-specific flyers. Because golf professionals have many responsibilities, ClubStore supplies all the marketing strategy and tools to help promote the new member benefit of the golf pro’s online golf shop. And the turn-key program is free to the pro.
"We can’t see any reason that a club would not want to provide this level of service to its membership," Schleifer says.
Kent Dierks, Chief Operating Officer of VGM Club, agrees. "ClubStore is a perfect fit for us," Dierks says. "Our member golf club and city club properties will benefit greatly by the addition of ClubStore.org as our official online golf shop partner."
ClubStore’s original focus, Schleifer adds, was to provide golf shops with a more expanded offering of ladies’ apparel and accessories since golf shops have an extremely difficult task of presenting enough ladies’ product to satisfy their members. ClubStore also identified the corporate sales market as a big opportunity, as golf-shop owners have forever complained that it’s inappropriate to have a corporate golf outing at a club and provide gifts to participants from outside sources instead of from its own pro shop. Feeling corporate outing business should belong to the golf professional, ClubStore approached vendors that provide products that can be imprinted with a corporate identity.
"When Bob Petisi presented the ClubStore concept to me last year," Schleifer says, "I immediately agreed there was a market for this opportunity. One of the most important fundamental principles of our business model is that members want to support their golf professional and their club, and ClubStore provides that opportunity. We also promote corporate sales during any gift-giving season. We know that a great many executives and decision makers on the subject of corporate identity gifts are members of these clubs."
VGM Club was originally founded to help independent golf professionals obtain better pricing through membership in a larger group. The entire group’s purchasing power was used to negotiate improved pricing and terms for the individual professionals, yet allowed them to still work with their local sales representatives. That leveled playing field allowed pros to compete with much larger off-course retailers. Through member feedback, VGM Club began to expand its services to include golf course supplies for the superintendent, as well as clubhouse supplies and food and beverage. VGM Club then expanded its membership to include tennis, yacht, city and athletic clubs.
Contact:
Mary Beth Lacy at 760-346-6942 or email: mb@mblacy.com
Brian Schleifer – brian@clubstore.org
