An outdoor brand
for wanderers
See how we bootstrapped an outdoor shopify ecommerce store for amateur and beginner hiking enthusiasts.
Results & Outcomes
WordPress site launch
10%+ ad campaign CTR
Scope
ecommerce WordPress store integrated with Shopify, product collection landing pages for hiker personas, A/B testing on social websites
Project length
2 months
Shaping the brand
For an outdoor WordPress and Shopify ecommerce store, we first needed to establish a strong brand that represented the desires of the customers. So after doing a lot of research on ultra light hiking on places like Reddit and Instagram, we narrowed in on potential customers who are new to hiking and probably in their 20s.
There was a lot of engagement online around the weight sum of a pack so we used this as an opportunity to introduce a drop ship brand centered around beginner hikers looking for ultra light hiking gear.
Design guide
We wanted Hiker Tan to feel like a cozy fireplace or the colors of Fall, but wanted to communicate a classical design aesthetic with traditional looking serifs and sans-serifs.
Brand identity
Seeing the brand in context helps capture the journey of our prospective audience. We chose the mountain as a logo because for beginner hikers we learned, there’s usually a personal journey of self-discovery that leads people into this sub-culture.
Persona segmentation
For an outdoor WordPress ecommerce store there is a strong desire to sell to everybody. We found it really useful to line up everything about our business around the use cases of beginner, couples, and advanced.
We determined these personas after seeing all the reasons people found themselves in sub Reddits like r/ultralighthiking. Some wanted to just get out of the city, and others wanted to spend more quality time with their significant other. Everybody wanted a light pack to get them where they wanted to go.
Ultra light gear
Since we were using a Shopify store integration, we mainly used AliExpress to source our outdoor products for the store.
One of the hardest parts of a dropship store from a design point-of-view is getting product images to feel like they aren’t from AliExpress.
So we went to great lengths to make the product pages really stand out and have imagery that was high quality and consistent with the products we were using.
Product collections
A concept we wanted to test out was being able to create collections of products on the site that would come with an aggregated estimate of the weight of the total collection of products.
The goal was to be able to advertise collections that were under 10 lbs. This meant you could buy several items and have a general idea of how everything fits without having to do the math yourself.
For any outdoor WordPress ecommerce store, this was a pretty interesting challenge to solve for since Shopify products at the time were not intended to be grouped and sold as 1.
The
homepage
For the homepage we really wanted to tap into the aspirational dreams and goals of our audience. So we thought nothing better than sitting under the stars, on top of a mountain edge with an incredible view.
The product page
One of the questions we got a lot in the early development of Hiker Tan was validating if the products were good or not. Many people in the outdoor industry are loyal to certain brands.
So we felt that for every product we put into a collection, that we had actual hikers go out and report back if it was good or not. This made the ‘field test’ a major component to the product page.
The outdoor
gear review
When we would get a new outdoor review together, we made a dedicate space for them on the site that intended to grow into an outdoor gear review site.
Nurturing a customer experience
of trusted expertise
An additional aspect to our fields tests was the idea that we could connect influencers and have them develop a meaningful presence on our site with the inclusion of their product review in our custom format.
Testing
for buyers
Once we had a brand and operational store, we took to social media to get the awareness out. Some of our promotions lead to sales and views and others didn’t work as well.
Engagement outcomes
We weren’t able to sell a collection from this campaign, but we sold other items on the store. You really need unique products and a lot more available funds for ad resourcing to find a buyer for that kind of higher priced offering. It’s easy to impulse buy something on Instagram for $30 or less, but when it’s over $500, people need that brand recognition.
There was definitely enough interest in the brand to make this a viable option in the future. Since it was an experiment into drop shipping, I learned a lot and found it to be a successful experience. My dream for Hiker Tan is to develop the brand further with more product-centric digital offerings that still enable people to get outdoors.
