E-commerce is a booming business, but not everybody has managed to fully adapt to the fast-moving world of online shopping. One such example would be Footjoy, market leader in golf shoes.
Not so long ago Footjoy added a new section to its website, called MyJoys. In this section, consumers design and create their own personal golf shoe. Footjoy went a long way to appease co-creating customers: they can place their own images on the shoe and have over 70,000 color combinations at their disposal. The website immediately shows would-be designers what their new golf shoes will look like. There's just one catch: there's no ‘Buy button’!
Footjoy obviously went out of its way to let customers create personal customized golf shoes, but the company also goes out of its way to prevent people from then buying those shoes. Instead of a standard online shopping cart and buying process, Footjoy kindly asks its customers to contact one of Footjoy's retail partners. And even that isn't as easy as it sounds: finding a Footjoy retailer that offers customized shoes is no mean task.
At the least it's a remarkable situation Footjoy has created. The co-creation platform, in all its 70,000 color combinations, must have cost the company quite a bit of money. Question is, without a very standard ‘Buy button’, how will they ever make any money on their investment?
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