2024 Outdoor Retail Market Report

There has been a significant shift in consumer behaviour towards online shopping and less foot traffic in physical stores. The top 5 outdoor retail sellers who have seen the largest growth are:

1. gooutdoors.co.uk (+14%)
2. millets.co.uk (+30%)
3. thenorthface.co.uk (+45%)
4. snowleader.co.uk (+92%)
5. jack-wolfskin.com (+9350%)

Within our Outdoor Retail Industry Report, we cover the brands that have gained the most visibility within the year, called our top 5 winners.

These winners are:

1. thenorthface.co.uk (10%)
2. trespass.com (23%)
3. berghaus.com (87%)
4. rab.equipment (56%)
5. columbiasportswear.co.uk (117%)

Congratulations to all of our winners, especially Columbia Sportswear. That’s an impressive jump YoY! And we can even see some of you leading the industry so great job! Clearly you're all doing something right and we can all learn from your marketing campaigns.
Where there are wins, there must also be losses.

The top 5 losses in the Outdoor Retail Market Report are:

1. decathlon.co.uk (-23%)
2. gooutdoors.co.uk (-28%)
3. cotswoldoutdoor.com (-29%)
4. regatta.com (-22%)
5. ospreyeurope.com (-100%)

Something to learn here is that oespreyeurope.com has been redirected to osprey.com/gb so that lost visibility will be regained over time. If you’ve lost visibility, remember, that it’s just a tough mountain to climb and you just have to get the right SEO equipment!
Wondering where your brand is on the visibility table?
Download our free Outdoor Retail Market Report to see where you stack up.

We’ve got some insights around keywords and trends that can help you gain back lost visibility or help you find focus for your SEO campaign. First, let’s start with keywords, which can be split into high-competition and opportunity.

High-competition keywords are those that are high in monthly search volume, but every brand is targeting them, making it harder to rank higher in the SERPs. Some examples in the report include: ‘camping equipment’ with 9,100 SV and a competitiveness rating of 36, followed by ‘camping supplies near me’, and ‘hiking backpack’.

Opportunity keywords are those that are also high in monthly search volume but low in competitiveness, making them easier to rank highly for. These tend to be more specific keywords. Some in our report are: ‘rucksack’ with 2,500 SV and 8 competitiveness, followed by ‘sleeping mat’ and ‘rock climbing shoes’.

Trends are split into emerging and receding brands and products. For now, we will just cover a snippet of emerging products, a few of those are: ‘mountaineering equipment’, ‘hiking trekking boots’, and ‘camping shops near me’.

We can see a common theme of specific types of outdoor activities, specific products as well as a focus on local SEO with the keyword ‘near me’. If you have a physical store it’s worth optimising your local SEO to reach these customers.

For more details on ways to get your SEO ready for the hike, download our free Outdoor Retail Market Report today.

These are two important factors when it comes to SEO. How well your brand is built on social media can have a direct effect on your brand reach, traffic and potential customers. It plays a vital role in making sure your name is in front of the user's mind when it comes time for them to convert.

In our Outdoor Retail Report, we look at who’s doing the best in the social world with an owned social scoring system.

The brand hitting their PB is North Face, with an owned social score of 18,603 and over 12,000,000 followers across several platforms.

Utilising both image and video content of their products and clothing being used in the real world, gives users trust of the brand.

They also signpost user-generated content on their page with credit signs, use hashtags such as #NeverStopExploring to connect with their audience, and have regular festivals or events, such as the The North Face Climb Festival.

The North Face not only dominate social media, but they came first in our brand reach score, showing that social media does have an impact on building brand reputation and increasing people searching for your brand online.

In a month, they get 165,000 brand searches, which is incredible. Great job!

Interested to see where your brand lands in social data or brand reach? Download our free report today.

Buying anything online takes trust. EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is important for users as well as being a ranking factor for Google. In our Outdoor Retail Report, we cover the number of reviews and review scores of all the brands in the industry.

The top 10 most trustworthy sites are:
1. gooutdoors.co.uk
2. millets.co.uk
3. blacks.co.uk
4. gb.ecco.com
5. sportpursuit.com
6. passenger-clothing.com
7. winfieldsoutdoors.co.uk
8. saltrock.com
9. montane.com
10. tiso.com

Page speed is an important factor in SEO. Users want a fast site and a fast experience. If your site is too slow, you’ll lose traffic and conversions. It’s vital to make sure your site is fast but also optimised for both desktop and mobile, as both are key in the browsing and purchasing journeys.

The 10 sites with the fastest page speed are:
1. outdoorworlddirect.co.uk
2. alpinetrek.co.uk
3. scarpa.co.uk
4. cotswoldoutdoor.com
5. snowandrock.com
6. grisport.co.uk
7. columbiasportswear.co.uk
8. millets.co.uk
9. absolute-snow.co.uk
10. mountain-equipment.co.uk

Interested to know where your brand stacks up against your competitors in various ranking factors? Or want to learn more about this year's keywords and trends to focus your campaign?

You can have all this information sent straight to your inbox; Just download our Outdoor Retail Market Report for free today!

If you don’t see your brand, don’t worry! Our data includes all the brands in the sector, but we’d be here all day if we included them all in our report. Just get in touch for a personalised report.

If you want to chat SEO, want a free strategy audit, or have any questions, get in touch today. We’d love to hear from you!