“It’s a way for us to learn, grow, and measure the effectiveness of our channels…” other brands, is the wholesale channel. It’s really important that we work closely with our wholesale partners to grow the brand across every market. As a paddleboard is such a considered purchase, talking to experts is very important in aiding the purchase process. Educating staff at shops in every market we’re in and making them experts is a big focus for us. A developing area of focus for Red Paddle Co is the online D2C channel. While most brands would look to take on this channel alone, alienating their existing wholesale accounts, we leverage a retailer-integrated ecommerce system – which effectively means that when a sale is made through our website that it is fulfilled by the closest retailer to the consumer. It’s a way for us to learn, grow, and measure the effectiveness of our channels so that we can partner with our wholesale accounts in a way that is best for everyone,” Meakin said. Please visit our website at http:// redpaddleco.com or youtube.com/ RedPaddleCo for hundreds of home videos and produced HD features in multiple languages. EXPLORE YOUR WORLD •
There are people who don’t really know what type of board they want or why they should buy a Red Paddle board, and that’s what our staff is here for. We love the sport and we’re available digitally or on the phone to hold anyone’s hand through that process – it’s what we do! It’s also key to our business and we want to get it right. That’s still our attitude after ten plus years and I think it really speaks to our message, our direction: we follow through consistently because we listen, we learn.” “For us, the safety element is also a big one...” The pedagogy doesn’t stop with sales, he continued. “For us, the safety element is also a big one. You are looking at a sport that when done right is relatively safe, but if it’s done wrong it can go really, really wrong – and it does happen. Everyone needs to take responsibility. The industry needs to be really big on safety and we take that responsibility very
seriously. Any SUP canmake pretty much any stretch of coastline your own personal playground but even pros need to set limits.” And Red Paddle Co helps their customers responsibly set those limits and have all sorts of information on their boards and their use on their website at redpaddleco.com. “Making sure our customers – and ourselves and our loved ones, for that matter – stay safe is a big part of our message, our direction, and how we follow through,” Meakin said. Red Paddle Co’s holistic presence is felt far and wide. The Country/Language Selector at redpaddleco. com is 17 countries strong – not bad for a company that started in the UK only 10 years ago. “After the UK, USA and Canada we have a great presence in France, Germany and Spain, but we sell boards in over 60 countries worldwide and have some fantastic strong holds all over the globe. We’ve really honed our ability to build large wholesale channels across a variety of countries and cultures. Our main channel of focus, much like
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2019
91 AUGUST 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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