eCommerce Success Story: Tropicfeel
Miguel Nicolás
06/08/2024
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We are going to share this the eCommerce success story of Tropicfeel, one of those worth studying and leaving a mark.
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It is no secret that in this blog, we love dissecting case studies in online stores. Today, we bring the story of Tropicfeel, which combines a perfectly designed product, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and an uncommon way of obtaining financing: crowdfunding.
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What does Tropicfeel sell?
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We could stay on the surface and say sports shoes, backpacks, and other travel-oriented clothing.But if we dig a little deeper, it is easy to discover that what they really sell is a lifestyle and the promise of minimizing the impact of our actions on the environment.Behind the brand is a different way of doing something as aspirational as traveling the world, and their products are the perfect travel companions.
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INSIGHT: A good product is one that performs a function efficiently, but a product you love is one that makes you feel better every time you use it. Tropicfeel is a great example to look at.
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The Idea Behind the Brand
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Behind every business, there are many motivations, but the most interesting cases, at least for me, are those where a need is discovered from the entrepreneurs' own experience. This is one of those cases.Imagine: it is 2016 and a pair of friends, Lucas Gispert and Alberto Espinós, are traveling through Thailand for a month. After walking for over 100 hours, they realized their shoes could not keep up and were falling apart.This could have ended with a bad experience and a new pair of shoes, but it sparked an idea: what if they created practical, comfortable shoes for long walks on any terrain that were also durable?Thus, the idea of making a hybrid of a sports shoe, trekking boot, and water shoe was born. A sort of Swiss army knife of footwear.Additionally, it was important that they could be stored in the smallest possible space, almost folded, to avoid taking up too much room.
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INSIGHT: The shoes that this couple of friends came up with have the great virtue of meeting several needs. When we travel, we need to save space; we cannot carry three pairs of shoes, especially not with a "backpacker" profile.
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For the sake of coherence, these shoes, designed to enjoy the outdoors and nature, had to be environmentally friendly. It was essential to minimize the carbon footprint by being efficient in processes and choice of raw materials.
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INSIGHT: We can say that social and ethical responsibility has been present from the start of the company to this day. In fact, 1% of their income is donated to the conservation of natural parks, saving carbon dioxide, while offsetting their business activity's inevitable environmental impact.
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Crowdfunding to Launch the Business
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The idea, on paper, seemed very good. Everyone they talked to, who had a similar vision, seemed enthusiastic and willing to buy. The problem was finding financing to start turning the project into reality.At this point, Lucas and Alberto sought the help of Javier Turull (who would become the company's operations director). He saw it very clearly almost instantly: they would find the money through crowdfunding.This was a project that met the best expectations for a collaborative campaign. The product is globally demanded, relevant to a community, and has a social component.All this, supported by a great marketing campaign, made Tropicfeel one of the big successes on the Indiegogo platform. When the contribution period ended, they had raised over $5 million from more than 250,000 backers.
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INSIGHT: Opening up to a platform like this is an opportunity to validate your business idea while generating a presale that lets you know exactly how much initial inventory you will need.
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They did not expect such a success, even in their most optimistic forecasts. Additionally, they managed to reach a vast number of markets. For instance, this business started in Spain, but only 3% of those 250,000 backers were domestic.This meant that the brand's internationalization process had to be implemented from minute one because they needed to serve and provide products to all those buyers from 154 different countries.
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INSIGHT: It also obviously meant a great opportunity to work the digital channel through an eCommerce and sell abroad. As we always say, you must be flexible and know how to adapt to your audience and demand.
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Tropicfeel's eCommerce
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When we have analyzed so many eCommerce sites, it becomes difficult to find surprising things or things done differently.In Tropicfeel's online store, there is something that will catch your attention from the first second: the intensive use of videos and the high quality of their multimedia content in general, from the homepage to the product pages.In fact, on the homepage, above the scroll line, almost all the attention is on an image. The copy is very conversion-oriented with clear calls to action, and at this moment, it is a promotion.
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INSIGHT: Tropicfeel does not use the typical slideshow that displays images one after another, nor the classic grid with many products. The first impact must be more evocative and show their product in a usage context that projects a lifestyle.
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As we scroll down, we start to find product carousels, which is the most common way to display product collections in online stores.I especially like that when you hover over the image of the corresponding shoe or backpack, it does not show us another perspective of the product… it shows us someone using it during a trip!Then it alternates these carousels with videos and photographs that lead us to the categories. A well-resolved homepage that creates a pleasant experience for both the buyer and someone at a prior interest level within the conversion funnel.Balance is the word that best defines it.It is also worth talking a bit about the menu. Technically it is quite groundbreaking, organizing the information in a side tab, with links to the categories vertically. I would highlight two things:
- Best for: organizes and filters products based on the activity (sailing, working, water adventures, backpacking…) and destinations (cold, warm, and rainy).
- Use of banners to highlight products within the same menu. Perfect for directing traffic conveniently for the business towards deeper pages.
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INSIGHT: Products with such a clear functionality allow us to organize them based on their use. This is very interesting because it shows that we know our target audience and "translate" their needs into a practical categorization method.
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We cannot close this section without talking about their product pages. They have all the information a user might need: sizes, colors, composition, care, and a complete environmental impact report. This way, the customer always knows the environmental advantages of choosing Tropicfeel compared to competitor products.
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Keys to Tropicfeel’s Success
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- Extrapolate a personal need, based on experience, to one shared by a segment of the population, and scale it into a business.
- Launch a crowdfunding campaign to finance and minimize risks in the project's initial phase, being efficient from the get-go.
- Growth of the catalog within the same niche. They did not stop at footwear; they added more and more products designed for travelers.
- Use language consistent with their audience, especially visually. Their videos invite you to travel, have rhythm, and it is easy to project yourself into them. It’s almost more social media content than for an online store, but it works very well for selling.
- Transparency in sustainability and coherence with the brand's vision and mission. The reports are very detailed.
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What do you think of Tropicfeel’s eCommerce success story? Do you have a passion you could turn into business?