Content as Commerce
A surf trip, a repair needle, and a tree planted. That is the loop.
Why this matters now
Search has changed more in the last 6 months than ever.
Google’s new AI overviews now appear for 13.14% of all queries, double the rate from January 2025. Those AI answers steal clicks from traditional results, and Google’s global traffic has actually dropped 7.9% year-on-year since ChatGPT’s release. In short, fewer people are clicking those top-SEO blog posts. At the same time, Pinterest’s influence as a shopping platform is surging. 55% of Pinners use Pinterest to shop, and 85% of weekly Pinners have purchased based on a Pin. An incredible 93% of Pinterest users actively plan purchases on the platform. Buyers are bouncing between Google, social feeds, and product pages. You need content that travels across all those places and still sells. Passenger Clothing does this better than most outdoor brands, turning content into commerce across channels.
Want a full view of the marketplace? Click here to download our latest Outdoor Retail Market Report.
Market context
The outdoor retail sector is growing online, but the rising tide of organic search demand is drowning some. According to our 2025 outdoor clothing industry report, overall visibility in search for outdoor retailers is up 10% this year – yet Passenger outperformed this industry average. Passenger’s organic visibility rose +55% year-on-year to an average monthly score of 129,540, while the category giant Decathlon managed +21% and rival Blacks slumped –25%.
In a growing market, Passenger is the outlier. They didn’t buy their way up with massive ad spend or get vanity traffic from some commercially irrelevant press release. Brands still leaning on dated SEO tricks and keyword stuffing are losing ground, because people are discovering via TikTok clips and Pinterest boards now. Social feeds drive high purchase intent, meaning the only safe strategy is to build a content ecosystem that works everywhere. Passenger has done exactly that.
How Passenger wins
Content built to travel
The brand’s online Journal is organised into categories like Culture, Pocket Guides, Product, and Responsibility, each aligning with content formats that thrive on social media. For example, the Cookout Sessions recipe series lives as written articles and short videos, so it can engage readers on the blog and viewers on Instagram or YouTube. These posts are episodic and highly shareable. Episode 4 of Cookout Sessions, for instance, has an embedded video and even urges you to follow the chef Sam (@NoMeatDisco) on Instagram for more recipes. By the end of the article, you’re nudged to connect with Passenger on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Crucially, each post makes the path back to products obvious. Within the Journal, there’s always a prompt to “Join the Journey” by signing up for email (10% off your first order and a chance to win a £250 gift card)
Each Cookout Session or Pocket Guide also subtly points to relevant gear. Whether it’s a durable blanket in a campfire story or a featured jacket in a travel piece, the content naturally segues into commerce. Create content that fits both short-form video and in-depth write-ups, and make the journey from content to product effortless.
A simple, provable trust signal
Passenger plants a tree for every order – a one-for-one pledge that’s plastered everywhere. At checkout, a banner literally reminds you: “ONE TREE PLANTED FOR EVERY ORDER”. You see this promise on product pages and even on recipe posts. It’s part of the site’s DNA. The beauty is in its simplicity and credibility. They aren’t throwing a dozen vague eco badges at you – it’s one specific, provable action repeated sitewide. The Plant & Protect page tells this story in a few concise lines, listing real milestones instead of fluffy promises. In seconds, a buyer understands, “Okay, if I buy, they plant a tree.” It’s tangible. This trust signal also appears at the critical moment of purchase. Right next to the “Add to Bag” button, you see assurances: free delivery thresholds, the 60-day returns policy, and that tree-planting promise. It’s an instant trust booster. Many brands bury their CSR initiatives in a sustainability report. Passenger shouts its pledge from every page. By making a single clear promise – and backing it up with live counts and updates – Passenger turns sustainability into a conversion tool. Buyers feel “at least I’m giving back a bit” and trust that Passenger means it. One specific pledge, repeated everywhere, beats a wall of green logos every time.
Calm product pages
Passenger’s product pages are remarkably calm and user-centric, avoiding the chaos that plagues many e-commerce sites. All the critical info is right next to the buy button where your purchase doubts arise. For example, each product page has a little info strip that says “One tree planted for every order”, “Free delivery on orders over £75”, and “60 day free UK returns” in plain sight. By placing the returns policy and shipping threshold up front, they preempt the questions every shopper has:
How much is delivery?
What if it doesn’t fit?
The user never has to hunt for these basics – they’re answered at a glance, which means fewer hesitations at checkout. Material details and care instructions are provided, but kept concise and scannable. The product descriptions hit the key points (e.g. “recycled fabric, packs into its own pocket”) without drowning you in marketing speak. Even the reviews are handled elegantly. Passenger doesn’t clutter the product page with hundreds of reviews loading under the product. Instead, they maintain a dedicated Reviews hub in a section lower down the page with filters for reviews about quality or fit. If you want to read in-depth reviews, you can click through – otherwise the product page itself stays focused. They also offer buy-now-pay-later options (like Klarna or Clearpay) but they’re not plastered in your face. No giant “PAY £X/MONTH” banners screaming at you – the info is available in the help section or at checkout, but the product page remains distraction-free. This restraint is deliberate. By omitting needless clutter, Passenger guides the shopper’s attention to exactly what matters: the product and the purchase info that builds confidence. The result is a smoother path to conversion. You don’t get derailed by pop-ups, aggressive upsells, or an overload of badges. Every question that might block a sale (“Can I return it if it’s not right?”) is already answered next to the call-to-action. It’s a masterclass in an informative yet uncluttered product page – something that many of Passenger’s competitors have failed to achieve.
Circularity and community as retention
Passenger doesn’t treat the sale as the end of the journey. Two of their smartest initiatives keep customers engaged after purchase: Re:Roam and the Roamers Collective. Re:Roam is Passenger’s take on circular fashion, launched in partnership with Reskinned. The concept: give damaged or “worn” gear a second life instead of sending it to landfill. Passenger collects garments that were returned with minor faults, photo samples, or well-loved pieces, and Reskinned’s specialists repair and refresh each item for resale. They even make the repairs stylish – visible mending, colorful patches – so the repaired pieces have character. The result is a small but thriving Re:Roam collection of one-off jackets, fleeces, and tees that are “ready for their next adventure” instead of tossed in the bin. This program reframes what “quality” means: it’s not just how long until something breaks, but also how you support the product after it’s broken. By fixing and reselling gear, Passenger cuts down on waste, recoups margin, and proves to customers that their products are built to last (or at least built to be repaired).
It’s a loyalty play too – if you know the brand will help keep your jacket roaming for years, you’re more likely to buy in the first place. Meanwhile, the Roamers Collective is Passenger’s community content engine.
It’s essentially a structured ambassador/UGC (user-generated content) program, but with a lot more imagination. Anyone with a passion for “meaningful escapism” can apply to join the collective; the basic ask is that you be an authentic storyteller (and have at least ~1k Instagram followers to show you know how to create content). Once in, Roamers get missions – e.g. “capture a sunset with your favourite song and Passenger gear,” or “share about reforestation on your social feed.” They earn points and rewards (like product gift cards, event invites, commissions on referrals) by completing these missions. In essence, Passenger has outsourced a chunk of its content creation to its own community, in a structured way that keeps people excited and engaged. Members of the Roamers Collective write blog posts for the Journal (see the Camp Letters series, where community members share trip stories), submit recipes (feeding into things like Cookout Sessions), and star in social media content. Every piece of content a Roamer creates ties back to either a product, a collection, or an experience that Passenger offers.
The Touch Grass camp letter, for example, subtly showcases the outdoor gear and mindset Passenger is all about. User-generated content becomes marketing content. The key here is that the community isn’t an afterthought for Passenger. Instead of spending big on generic ads, Passenger “pays” its community in product and recognition, and gets authentic content in return. By investing in circularity and community, Passenger closes the loop: buyers are drawn in by content, converted by values, and then they themselves create content or stick around for the next chapter (whether that’s repairing their jacket or sharing their road trip photos). Retention, loyalty, and content creation all roll into one.
A balanced view
It’s not all about Passenger. To put things in perspective, Decathlon still dominates on sheer volume and scale. The French sporting goods giant has an advice and tips section that spans dozens of sports and activities. They publish everything from “how to choose hiking boots” to detailed bike maintenance tutorials – content that casts an insanely wide net. That scale pays off in high-intent traffic. Decathlon effectively owns a lot of “How do I…?” Google queries in the outdoor space, and that content directly drives people to Decathlon’s services and stores. (Their bike repair guide literally says “stop by our bike shops in Emeryville or Potrero and our team will help you out”, before proceeding to show DIY tips. And after the tips, they include a Shop Bike Maintenance link to sell you the tools or parts you’ll need.) This is the power of evergreen content at scale – Decathlon uses information to generate sales as effectively as most brands use promos.
If you need inspiration for building a massive knowledge base that funnels into commerce, look at Decathlon’s model. They’ve proven that information can be a sales funnel: their how-to articles boost brand trust and justify in-person visits for services or upsell products (tents, bikes, you name it).
Conclusion
Passengers’ rise emphatically shows that content and commerce can be fantastic partners in crime. When you craft content that lives beyond a blog (on social, in community forums, on search), tie every piece of it back to a product or a value, and make one clear, honest promise to your customers, you create a self-sustaining system. This is a system that keeps working even as Google experiments with AI and the old SEO rules get upended. Human-first content, visible proof, frictionless shopping pages, and a loyal community – that’s the Passenger playbook. Passenger Clothing went from an underdog to a category leader by understanding its buyers’ journey and executing it with passion and precision.