About Backcountry
For over 25 years, Backcountry has been the go-to retailer for outdoor enthusiasts seeking premium gear and apparel. From mountaineers to trail runners, the retailer built loyalty through a curated mix of top outdoor brands.
With over 200,000 products across categories like bike, climb, ski, camping, and trail running, Backcountry’s catalog is a major competitive advantage…and a massive UX challenge.
Backcountry was able to test product experiences periodically, but needed a solution to personalize at scale given the expansive assortment so that conversion gains could be realized. A new AI pipeline that analyzes video content and maps it to the right products opened the door to doing this at scale.
The Challenge: One Template for 200,000 Products
One of Backcountry's biggest strengths, their massive catalog, was also a source of unlocked potential as having personalized product detail page (PDP) layouts was very burdensome. That led to three core issues:
- Slow Experimentation
Most tests that Backcountry would run required some sort of engineering lift, slowing down time to value and reducing the volume of experiments that could be run.
- Generic Landing Experiences
Although Backcountry was able to test some landing page experiences, the majority of traffic received the same landing page that didn't match the ad creative nor the shopper intent. This created a level of deleverage in paid media spend as conversion rates could be higher.
- Merchandising Opportunities
The current merchandising framework offers strong consistency but limits flexibility to tailor layouts by category, price point, or shopper intent. Expanding dynamic options for bundles and complementary gear would better align with how customers naturally shop.
A full site rebuild would have introduced unnecessary risk and long timelines. Backcountry needed a solution that added flexibility and speed for experimentation while preserving the strengths of the existing foundation.
The Solution: An Experimentation Layer on Top of the Existing Site
Backcountry partnered with FERMÀT to add an agile experimentation and merchandising layer on top of their existing ecommerce stack. Instead of rebuilding, teams could launch new PDP layouts and modules without waiting on engineering.
This let Backcountry:
- Direct control to Marketing & Merchandising
- Launch Tailored PDPs by Product Type
- Increase Testing Velocity
Experimentation became an always-on capability, not a one-off initiative.
Testing revealed two distinct shopper types:
- Pro shoppers looking for fast access to specs and sizing nuance
- Casual shoppers needing simple explanations and helpful product context
Designing PDPs for each behavior helped Backcountry match the experience to both the product and the shopper.
FERMÀT didn’t just fix a page template. It changed how Backcountry worked.
With FERMÀT, their product catalog stopped being a constraint and started acting like what it really is: a growth lever. By tailoring experiences across five key categories, Backcountry achieved improved add-to-cart rates while scaling experimentation across thousands of SKUs.
