First Look: The New Backcountry.com

Published on 08/10/2012

Sometimes you need to give yourself a little facelift, and the team over at Backcountry.com went for the full makeover.  With a brand new mega-menu, redesigned product search functionality, home page Buzz & Athletes section, and improved navigaton, the new site is looking slick.  We spoke with the VP of Product Development, Jonathan Nielsen, and he gave us some insight on the changes they made.

Nielsen said one of the major reasons for the update was customer feedback.  Users wanted to be inspired by the site. They thought the navigation was "old-school" and the site lacked the stylish look and feel that avid online shoppers have come to expect from top-tier e-retailers.

The Backcountry team conducted extensive customer surveys to learn how customers search for products, how they think about products, and how they were interacting overall with the site. The new dropdown mega-menu offers 2.5 times more categories than what was previously available to customers when they hit the homepage.

New Mega-Menu:

The development team also completely updated the fonts on the site to be clearer and easier to read.  They added a link to the Outlet store on the homepage so that users have an easier time finding products with the steepest discounts. The user review system has been rebuilt with a new algorithm so that the strongest reviews, highest quality images & videos, and the most valuable content for the user is pushed to the top of the review section.  This new system should make it easier to get insight on the product without having to sift through lots of unhelpful reviews first.

Major Category Links:

One of the other major factors that Backcountry wanted to address with the redesign was their brand image.  The Goat logo is well-known and the site sponsors some of the best outdoor athletes in the world.  By creating a Buzz & Athletes section right on the homepage, Nielsen and his team believe they will be able to drive more visibility to their athletes' endeavors as well as highlight the Backcountry brand. 

Buzz & Athletes:

Backcountry is very stoked with how visually appealing the new site is and they are currently allowing anyone to access the beta pages.  Nielsen has been monitoring the traffic and  currently 14% of Backcountry traffic is automatically exploring the Beta site.

New Landing Pages:

As always, you can earn cash back by shopping through Active Junky at Backcountry.com. To start playing around on the redesign and earn 7% cash back on all your Backcountry.com purchases, visit Backcountry Beta.