Outdoor Retail Insights

A balanced assortment is not simply one with many categories. Balance means that products have different roles and serve different customer needs. Four Useful Product Roles Traffic Products Products that attract attention or are easy for customers to understand. Core Products Products that represent the main category proposition. Complementary Products Products that naturally increase the…

Building a camping assortment is relatively easy. Building one without tying up too much inventory is harder. Large retailers can absorb slow-moving products because they have greater sales volume and broader customer traffic. Small businesses often have less room for error. The objective should therefore be to build a camping selection that covers the most…

Starting an outdoor product category does not mean carrying every type of camping or outdoor product available in the market. For a small retailer, a better approach is to build a focused selection around products that are easy to understand, useful across different situations, and capable of working together. Here are 25 product types that…

Camping chairs look simple. For a retailer, however, choosing the right camping chairs can involve more decisions than simply comparing price and appearance. A camping chair may be used at a campsite, beside a campfire, at a backyard gathering, during a road trip, at a beach, or even at an outdoor event. That makes the…

Starting or expanding an outdoor product category can be challenging for a small retailer. Large outdoor retailers can carry hundreds or even thousands of products across camping, hiking, travel, cycling, and outdoor lifestyle. A small business usually cannot—and does not need to. For independent retailers, the goal is not to build the biggest assortment. It…