Keen has just launched an online store with a concept that is apparently unprecedented in the European outdoor business – enabling consumers to decide if they want to buy directly from Keen or from the company’s online retail partners. For this purpose, the inventories of the retail partners, such as Globetrotter in Germany and Cotswold Outdoor in the U.K., are linked directly with the trilingual Keen website. Such an electronic retailing concept was already launched by Keen in the U.S. market in 2008, and the results so far indicate that more than half of the customers end up buying from retail partners rather than Keen itself. The brand strives to have at least four strong online partners in each country, and it purposely refrains from competing with them on online deliveries. Keen estimates that its own sales over the internet should make up from 5 to 8 percent of its European sales in three years.
