Backcountry is opening two brick-and-mortar stores--in the middle of a Pandemic: Due to the success of their (secret) warehouse, the DTC company is turning to retail.

• Author: Penrod, Emma
• Position: RETAIL

"THE DEATH OF BAD RETAIL IS HERE," says Chris Purkey, SVP for Backcountry. But if the pandemic of 2020 brought about the long-foretold retail apocalypse, it's turning out to have elements of a rapture.

Purkey doesn't deny that the pandemic has created new challenges for businesses large and small over the last year. However, he doesn't blame the pandemic alone for the closures wrought by COVID-19, nor does he believe that those retailers that closed failed to adapt to an online sales model. Rather he says that the pandemic highlighted which businesses were succeeding and which had struggled to achieve that crucial element of business success: putting the customer first.

It's in pursuit of this goal that Backcountry plans to run against the industry grain. Twenty-five years after Backcountry began selling online to make hard-tofind items, like avalanche beacons, more accessible, Backcountry now plans to open not one, but two retail outlets in 2021. "At the time in the 90s when they started the brand, you couldn't get an avalanche beacon unless you knew someone," Purkey says. From day one, creating that sense of having your own personal outfitter proved critical to Backcountry's success.

Brick-and-mortar retail wasn't necessarily part of the plan for Backcountry, but it was part of the company's natural evolution, says Purkey, who heads up customer experience and its emerging retail segment. Expertise was, by the company's nature, a core part of their business from the beginning.

"In doing so we offered superior levels of customer service, and we felt that allowed customers to feel they were being looked after," Purkey says.

MOVING FROM ONLINE TO IN-PERSON

As the company expanded and built on this model, they began to hire "Gearheads"--part sales associate, part influencer, and part instructor. "Gearheads become intimately familiar with who customers are and what their pursuits are," Purkey says. "They build friendships and often they end up meeting their customers. They want to sell you the product, but they want to know what your experience was and geek out about it, and be part of your next trip."

Backcountry began sending its Gearheads "into the wild" to host classes and physical events and realized that they needed to learn more about how customers engage with brands in a physical space. The company had already operated a physical outlet for a decade at its West Valley warehouse, and it proved popular with customers. Although Backcountry...