SAN FRANCISCO, CA (BRAIN) — Over the past year, Road ID has quietly grown its U.S. retail sales program to more than 900 dealers, a third of which are IBDs.
The program costs dealers nothing to adopt and features a free Road ID display that has a small footprint and showcases numerous styles of the company’s customized identification products, including wrist, ankle and shoe Road IDs.
“It’s just another touch point for us to engage with the customer,” said PJ Rabice, director of marketing and strategic partnerships for Road ID.
The display includes a pack of 50 individually coded brochures that offer a discount via free shipping. Customers then go online and input the brochure code and order their custom Road ID products. Road ID then tracks the code to trigger a commission to the retailer.
Dealers earn a 20 percent commission on identification products and 40 percent on high-visibility gear such as Road ID’s Supernova lights and reflective straps, belts and shoelaces.
Road ID also gives dealers unique URLs to embed on their website or within email newsletters. When visitors click through to RoadID.com to place an order, retailers earn a commission on those sales. Participating dealers can also get free Road IDs for their sales staffs.
The dealer initiative was rolled out in summer 2011, but initial take-up was slow and adoption didn’t pick up speed until this past spring, Rabice said, with Road ID waiting until this fall to formally announce the program, which is still being refined.
It’s not Road ID’s first attempt to have a presence at brick-and-mortar retailers. About five years ago, the company tested electronic kiosks where customers could customize their Road IDs right in stores. “We quickly found out that people weren’t interested in doing that when they can do it from their own home,” Rabice said.
Road ID scrapped that plan and began gathering input from retailers at both Interbike and The Running Event trade show to shape the new dealer program. Specialty running stores now account for almost half the dealers enrolled in the program, and 6 percent of Road ID’s year-to-date 2012 sales have gone through participating retailers, according to Rabice.
