It’s been interesting to watch the response to COVID-19 from various industries.

While we’ve pushed pause on promotional messages, other industries haven’t. The top online retail stores, for example, has seen virtually no drop in email volume over the last 30 days. Even when they mention COVID-19 in a subject line, they have no problem following that up with “And save 305 on t-shirts!”

The fact that the show can, and does, go on for other businesses can be tough to swallow, but it can also be the source of opportunity.

Crystal’s New Shopify Store
Crystal Mountain has their own branded spa products. While I’ve never been there (or to any spa for that matter), I’d imagine those are sold primarily on-site. That spa is now closed. So what did they do?

Open their own shopify store to sell those products online.

Will this make up all their lost revenue? Of course not.

Will it make up a little? Maybe.

Smart
People still need (and are shopping for) shampoo and hats and mugs. And they still love your brand. It’s just that many of the products you’d be selling right now are tricky during a pandemic.

This store gives those folks a chance to stop by the shop virtually to pick up the things they used to grab in person, and it gives Crystal a revenue-generating marketing message they can get behind that’s safe, relevant, and effective.

Good stuff, Crystal. If you’ve started to ramp up any retail efforts at your resort, let me know. I’ll love to see.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.