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eCommerce - Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Liberty Media Buys Out Online Competitor To REI, Backcountry.com

Liberty Media says it is buying online outdoors retailer Backcountry.com, but inancial terms were not disclosed.

Park City, UT-based eCommerce business Backcountry.com was founded in 1996. The company's CEO and co-founder is Jim Holland and John Bresee is President and co-founder. They are avid skiers and do not carry significant operational experience, but have been doing eCommerce as long as anyone. They botstrapped with an initial $2000 investment from the founders.

Backcountry.com is an online retailer focused on outdoor gear, particularly snow sports, selling products from the likes of North Face, Oakley, Burton, Rossignol, and K2. BackCountry has developed niche sites targeting hard-core skiers (TRAMDOCK.com), snowboarders (DogFunk.com), bargain-seekers (BackCountryOutlet.com and SteepandCheap.com) and middle-market price-sensitive outdoor athletes (Explore64.com). The company has consistenly been one of the fastest growers in online retailing. In 2004 Backcountry's sales were up 84% to $27.4M from $14.9M in 2003.

Backcountry.com has maintained triple digit growth year over year since its founding until 2004. We love the company's spunk when it issued a press release revealing that "Backcountry.com Blames the Weather for 84% Sales Increase - too Much Time Outside Keeps Company From Posting Triple Digit Growth." Like some other successful online retailers, Backcountry has learned to grow by launching several different sites focused on niche markets.

In addition to REI, competitors: Fogdog, Planet Outdoors and Altrec.

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