Classic Sailing's USP by Chloe Thomas

This is from a write up about Classic Sailing in a book called eCommerce Master Plan by Chloe Thomas. Take a look at eCommerce MasterPlan which we thoroughly recommend.

Case Study: Classic Sailing

Classic Sailing was founded in 1995 by Adam & Debbie Purser, to “take people to sea for safe sailing adventures”. It has a very niche range of products – sailing courses and one-to-many night trips as part of the crew of various sailing ships that voyage around the UK and around the world, everywhere from St Mawes, Cornwall to the Antarctic.

This is a business with a very niche product range, and a fairly niche customer base too. The business is primarily online, with one mailing per year, so it fits into our Online Only eCommerce Business Structure. The prospective customer base for sailing holidays and courses such as Classic Sailing offer is relatively small, so customer retention is essential. The number one reason someone will book again is because they enjoyed the experience last time – so strong customer service is really important. But it’s not the USP.

Classic Sailing’s USP is next to impossible for any of their competition to copy, and is founded on Adam and Debbie’s love of sailing. Even taking a quick look over their website you can’t fail to notice the vast amount of content, and the detail of that content. There’s almost the full history of each of their sailing vessels, and full guides to the schedules of each boat, and each specialist trip. Plus blog content on every sailing trip the owners go on themselves, and on those the customers go on too. If you love sailing, it’s a site you can easily lose a Friday afternoon to. This Knowledge and Information has a multitude of benefits – it brings customers back to the site again and again, it builds the Classic Sailing brand, it attracts new customers in, and it’s brilliant for marketing.