Sioux Falls Golf uses Lightspeed to build success through culture, community and smart ecommerce
Sioux Falls Golf runs three popular municipal golf courses. Taken over by Landscapes Golf Management in 2018, the team has focused on building a better culture, refining the customer experience and driving more revenue through events, memberships, pass sales and better ecommerce. After consecutive years of growth and an expanding community of golfers, Sioux Falls Golf is a model for how to offer quality public golf.
Business Type
Multi-Course Operator
Product Used:
Lightspeed Golf
Lightspeed eCom
Locations:
Sioux Falls, SD
Sioux Falls Golf drove major Black Friday and Cyber Monday revenue with Lightspeed eCom
$232K
Online pass sales
217
Online orders
40%
Pass conversion rate online
The challenge: bringing a business back to life
When Landscapes took over Sioux Falls Golf in 2018, business was struggling. From course conditioning and food and beverage to community engagement and creating a modern commerce experience, the team at Landscapes wanted to revitalize Sioux Falls Golf and the courses it managed, instil a professional culture and create a larger, more loyal customer base through new tactics. One area of particular need was driving more online pass sales and memberships across all three courses.
That being said, Cat Clark, the Director of Sales & Marketing for Sioux Falls Golf, needed the right tools to execute. This became apparent soon after he took over. “I only did one year with our previous software provider, which was very difficult and outdated to work with.”
“We were using another ecommerce platform which helped in getting people to the website, but it was archaic and not user-friendly for the consumer. It was also a lot harder to build on the back end, which was more time consuming. It didn’t look as good.”
“We've made significant financial improvement in the last few years.. A big piece of that has been the work that Cat has done in growing the memberships and utilizing the ecommerce store. The transition to Lightspeed afforded them that opportunity as our capabilities weren't as robust with our previous golf software provider.”
Scot Wellman, Director of Marketing & Revenue Management, Landscapes Golf Management
The solution: growing online pass sales with Lightspeed eCom
The switch to Lightspeed was a complete game changer for Cat and his team. “It’s been really good for us. It’s a great marketing tool for me and the online store has been absolutely amazing.”
Recognizing the growth of ecommerce and shifting consumer habits, the team at Sioux Falls used Lightspeed eCom to help them make selling and purchasing passes online easy and efficient.
With their courses running on ten-minute tee time intervals, they found that it was hard to market effectively with physical ads in the pro shop. These ads weren’t effective for foot traffic who were in and out of the pro shop so quickly. By leveraging QR codes on cart screens, Cat and his team were able to target golfers out on the course, drive traffic to the online store and drive seamless pass sales.
“I would say in my first year with our previous system, it was approximately 80% in-house sales to 20% online. With Lightspeed, we have completely flipped that. Very few people come into the pro shops to buy their passes now. A lot of that has come down to how easily we’ve been able to educate people on how simple it is to use QR codes, go online and make their purchases.”
“Lightspeed has been everything and more I could ask for.”
The ease with which Sioux Falls Golf sells memberships and passes online has played a key role in turning the business around. In addition to more than doubling their pass holders since taking over, they have been able to take advantage of periods of heightened ecommerce activity with timely promotions. During Black Friday 2023, Sioux Falls Golf was able to generate over 230K in pass sales online over a four-day period.
Lightspeed’s intuitive, user-friendly interface also makes it far easier for Cat to make adjustments when he needs to. “I had an issue before we went live on Black Friday and Scot (Wellman, Director of Marketing & Revenue Management at Landscapes) was able to log in and solve the problem from his phone while he was going to a football game. That’s something we could never have done with our previous system.”