Outdoor Retailer Hub Supercharges Exhibitor's Online Brand Presence
Virtual brand portals open 24/7 to serve specialty buyers efficiently and to facilitate sales through all buying cycles
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Outdoor Retailer Hub, a new online service from Outdoor Retailer, will bring brands and retailers together in a virtual platform of brand microsites that can be used year-round for everything from product development and launches to placing and managing orders.
A beta version of the OR Hub is currently live at www.outdoorretailerhub.com. At this time, the beta site contains the basic site framework and a few sample brand microsites.
The OR Hub — developed with technology partner Sparc Retail, LLC — allows brands to create a virtual portal outside of their consumer-centric site to showcase and update product offerings, provide marketing materials, integrate with existing back-end ERP systems, and advance the selling process with independent reps and retailers.
“The OR Hub provides a custom, firewalled, interactive environment for brands’ products and storyline that buyers can peruse 24/7 leading up to, during, or after the physical trade show,” said Kenji Haroutunian, vice president at Nielsen Expositions and Outdoor Retailer show director. “Whether they are current key retailers, growing partners or a potential new shop for a brand, buyers can use this new b2b tool as a central resource for serious decision-making.”
OR Hub allows companies to conduct in-line product launches and introduce new categories year-round to specifically identified stores or groups, putting an online tool into play before the full context is seen live at the Outdoor Retailer trade show.
A range of access permissions allows brands to customize who is able to view their microsite. Ranging from a publicly available brand platform to a select list of retailers, permissions can also be altered to accommodate certain points in a development cycle or to coincide with OR’s Winter and Summer Market shows.
“The OR Hub opens a lot of opportunities for brands and retailers to interact from the very beginning of product design and development all the way through launch and sales,” Haroutunian said, “A product designer could upload preliminary drawings and invite select retailers to deliver feedback to better tailor products for the markets they’re designed to serve. Then, they can switch out the images to prototype versions and finished goods as the product flows to market in final form where it is opened to a broader group of buyers and media.”
Three levels of microsites are available for the OR Hub: $2,500, $4,500 and $6,000 annually; each level includes the initial build-out of the brand’s main portal. Packages contain different numbers of categories and varying amounts of content to suit outdoor brands of all sizes.
“The OR Hub is an incredibly cost-effective solution, whether it’s a major industry heavyweight or a newer company,” said Sparc Vice President of Business Development John Telfer. “If a brand came to us to build a front end for its b2b commerce site, it would cost up to five times as much. With OR Hub, Outdoor Retailer is using its position in the industry and contacts to bring a lot of eyeballs to brands’ microsites through a convenient single point of entry.”
The OR Hub complements Outdoor Retailer’s GoExpo platform, which provides attendees and exhibitors with tools such as the online Featured Product Showcase and the Show Planner — an online interactive vehicle which buyers can use to research brands and products and pre-plan booth visits at the show.
For more information on the OR Hub, contact OR National Sales Manager Marisa Nicholson at marisa.nicholson@nielsen.com.
About Outdoor Retailer
Outdoor Retailer (OR) brings together retailers, manufacturers, industry advocates and media to conduct the business of outdoor recreation through tradeshows, product demo events and web-based business solutions. Produced by Nielsen Expositions and based in San Juan Capistrano, California, Outdoor Retailer also provides and promotes retailer education, advocacy, responsibility and critical face-to-face business initiatives within the outdoor industry.
Now celebrating 30 years, Outdoor Retailer (www.outdoorretailer.com) connects approximately 40,000 attendees on a semi-annual basis for its Summer and Winter Market shows, and thousands more through its year-round online resources and platforms.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Maura Lansford, SOAR Communications, 801.656.0472 x2(wk) / 817.929.8123(cell) mlansford@soarcomm.com
Chip Smith, SOAR Communications, 801.656.0472 x1(wk) / 801.597.7515(cell), mailto:csmith@soarcomm.com
