Trails.com introduces "eTrail" program for retailers

Trails.com has taken its eTrail program from the cyber world to the real world. Now retail stores can sell eTrail Passes, which allow people to download trail information from hundreds of guidebooks, and download topo maps for all of the United States.

Each eTrail pass costs $29.95 and provides access to information for a year. In retail stores, the passes are displayed as a card that hangs on a POP rack. Each card has a removable credit card that has an account number and activation code.

“The eTrail Passes are great for retailers because they’re a great impulse item and a good gift purchase,” said Rob Holmes, director of marketing for Trails.com.

Holmes said that a handful of retailers, including REI, have been selling the passes since Christmas, but the company is now making a push to place passes into a wider number of specialty retail stores.

Since the eTrail Pass was introduced in the summer of 2002, Trails.com has sold 10,000 online, Holmes said.

For more information, you can visit Trails.com at the AlpenBooks booth at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, or at www.trails.com.