Austad’s new owner takes a swing at improving the golf catalog’s performance through new creative, list and merchandising strategies

By Alicia Orr , Editor In Chief and Catalog Success

Austad’s new focus is on name-brand equipment rather than on its own line of clubs. “We also have significantly more golf apparel than our competition,” Arett says, noting the catalog’s chief competitors are Golfsmith and Edwin Watts. Arett explains the move to add more apparel into the mix: “If you look at the incidence of purchase, people buy clubs, the big stuff, only every four to five years. But they buy apparel and accessories, balls, golf gloves, every year.