The CEO of Strava, the exercise tracking app, is trying to convert more users to paid members. Strava tries many different paths to boost usage and revenue, including helping members compete against each other. 

Michael Martin, the CEO, noted in a recent The Wall St. Journal article that working out can be lonely, and Strava seeks to fix this by building a community around exercise. (Yes, people will pay to not be lonely.) We have long said that working in retail--and online retail in particular--can be lonesome.  Just like a Strava member wants to share their run times and routes, we want our Shop Local members to share their retail successes. More than10 years ago, we launched a news sharing aspect of Bridge to share news among the business community. While this news feature never took off, we continue to try sister ideas. Last summer, we launched the Leaderboard to foster community via competition. (Thanks to Peloton for the inspo!) The Leaderboard did work—and even got us a spot on the last page of Tableware Today magazine. (R.I.P. to this legendary industry publication.) 

While a leaderboard is powerful, I also think there is value to members in just helping them share what they are doing, including receiving orders, adding products to their site, or updating a slide. We currently show activity by members in a drop-down and on the Dashboard, but there's no dedicated page for viewing activity. Inspired by Strava, we're going to launch a new dedicated Network Activity page that shares what other members are doing. The goal is to show our network is active, breathing, and helping members set personal records--just like Strava.

The motive behind building a great exercise app or retail platform is often monetary. Strava wants to have more paying members, and so do we.  We recently updated our free store to be $12/month. My goal is that by showing more activity to members, they themselves will become more active. Activity often leads to richer outcomes both indoors and outdoors.

Homework:

What daily or weekly activity could you show regarding your work and/or industry on a web page that your peers may value? How could you visualize it (i.e. via maps, etc.) to make it more engaging? 

View the article about Strava in the WJS:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/strava-athlete-intelligence-michael-martin-ceo-37c9a993?st=xVyx9S&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
 
View our Leaderboard:

https://www.shoplocal.org/leaderboard