Why Is Taking a Golf Shop Online So Hard? And Best Practices if You Want to Try Yourself

Running an online shop at a golf or country club is a tall order. Staff members wear dozens of hats and distractions are endless. Meanwhile, it's very difficult to run a a sucessful e-commerce site even if it's your main focus. And, of course, the risk you have to take with an investment in inventory.

Plenty of tools exist, such as Shopify, to make it easy for you to design an e-commerce store and add your own products. But that's the easy part.

What happens when you're flooded with orders? Who is packaging and shipping the product? Who manages the inventory? What happens when there's a customer service inquiry? What if someone buys something from the online store, but you actually don't have any inventory left? Who adds new products when you have fresh inventory? Who takes the pictures of the products so they look good?

These are all lessons we've learned over the years at Tee Comerce.

Here are 5 suggested best practices if you're thinking about launching an online shop at your course or club:

1. Hold a specific staff member accountable to the online shop. While it will be a team effort, one person needs to manage it's success.

2. Have responsive customer service. Customers have short attention spans, so if you don't have questions ansered quickly, you'll likely lose the sale.

3. Manage expectations. Amazon has set an impossibly high bar. Let people know that orders will take X number of days to ship up front so they know what to expect.

4. Stay on top of inventory. If you don't keep up with inventory levels, much of your time may be spent on sending out of stock emails.

5. Presentation matters. Make sure to take clear photos that have no backgrounds. And be sure to have a nicely packaged presentation.

 

Good luck with your new online shop! Although running an online shop at your course or club can be difficult, it's well worth it.

 

If you're interested learning how you can have an online shop at your course or club without having to invest in extra inventory or deal with the fulfillment, fell free to reach out!