Last year, both Thule and Yakima launched new online dealer support programs. Yakima focused on Yakimadealer.com, offering 24-hour support and Realtime ordering status.  Thule partnered with Shopatron, building its business-to-consumer e-commerce presence with a dealer-fulfilled sales program.

These sites provide convenience for placing orders, downloading images and pricing documents. They also offer hidden incentives, explains Thule’s director of national accounts, Schuyler Horton. “For us, it takes a little heat off of phone calls, especially in peak season, but it’s also way to pick up extra margins.” Thule orders placed online receive a 2 percent rebate at end of year.


“Retailers are able to check inventory around–the-clock without having to pick up the phone,” notes Cherie Appleby-Lannan, Yakima’s director of customer service. “They can cut and paste orders from their own systems and can do this per their own schedules, without having to rely on Yakima during its operating hours.”


In practice, these systems still have some glitches to work out. Notes Don Pollie, buyer at Kittery Trading Post in Maine, “Yakimadealer.com, quite honestly, hasn’t helped me. It’s actually another step that I have to do.” He adds that the extra 2 percent offered for placing orders online is an incentive, but he has concerns about how the items are listed.


“I think the site should be laid out alphanumerically. It’s not a big deal if there were only five items, but with clips there are more like 50 items. So it would be nice if our two systems meshed better,” he says, also noting that it would be nice if same were true of the Thule dealer site.


What turns heads, and frees staff hours, is the new Thule Interactive Point of Purchase (TIPP) kiosk, currently in use at Kittery Trading Post and L.L. Bean. Thule plans to have 20 to 30 installed at EMS and REI stores nationwide by year’s end. This self-service, touch-screen kiosk delivers real-time fit information, matching the appropriate rack system to specific vehicles, depending on consumers’ gear-carrying needs.


“At first, we were leery of employees perceiving this as a threat,” reports Thule’s Horton. “We didn’t want them to feel like they were being ‘roboted’ out, but we’ve been hearing the exact opposite and instead, it’s helped the staff close sales.”


Kittery’s Pollie concurs. “It’s worked very well because it’s a lot easier to use. First of all, most consumers can’t walk up to the book and use it, but they can walk up to kiosk and run through questions. It’s as easy as an ATM,” he says.


Horton adds that it really helps during busy weekends and holiday seasons. “In the past, when customer would look up their car in the book and be there for 10 minutes, lines would form quickly. This kiosk is really, really fast, streamlining the whole thing, so you get a quicker turnaround.”


But one of the biggest benefits of the kiosk is the printout of products and pricing at the end of the session. While most displays don’t even offer a writing utensil, let alone scrap paper for recording information for future reference, these printouts are valuable to consumers and vendors alike.


While there are still a few hiccups to work out with the kiosk-such as updates that keep the system current with new car makes and models, and troubleshooting non-working printers-it’s been well received, especially once vendors trust the kiosk operating system. “Anytime you say, ‘computer line’ or ‘wireless’ to a retailer they get a little nervous,” jests Horton. “But it’s really a self-contained merchandising program. There’s no way to get hacked into from outside or interfere with the store’s other computer systems.”


Although vendors are reducing SKUs and continually making transport systems easier to install and load, Carrie Tomczyk, co-owner of Village Sports in Lyndonville, VT, notes that consumers are accepting the challenge these manufacturers face.


“I think it’s the cars, not the rack manufacturers, that make things so difficult,” Tomczyk says. “They’re continually changing their rooflines and gutter systems. It’s kind of a headache, but everything you do with cars anymore is a headache.”