We met up with Durand Coldicott who is the Web Store Manager for Torpedo7, New Zealand’s largest outdoor adventure retailer. Torpedo7 sells a pretty diverse range of goods, with product categories including mountain biking, running, motocross, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, camping and many more! 

How long have you been with Torpedo7 and whats your responsibilities?

In terms of my role within the business, I am responsible for user experience on the website and digital marketing. I have been within the company for approaching 5 years, and nearly 2 years in my current role.

What did you want to achieve by purchasing Sparkle in the first place?

We wanted a content aggregation feed that could tap into the lives of our amazing customers. Torpedo7 is lucky enough to sell exciting products, gear which enables people to go on adventures and enjoy the outdoors. We wanted those experiences to become visible to our wider community to ‘stoke’ people out and inspire them to go on their own adventures.

What was the obstacle that would have prevented you from buying a product like this?

We’ve looked around in the past for a social content aggregator, but always seemed to hit a road block when it came to cost, moderation, or customization. Sparkle solved all these issues, it has a great moderation feature, is fully customizable in terms of style, and is really good value.

What did you find as a result of buying Sparkle?

Our customers, staff and athletes love it. It is visually engaging and it does a great job of building a link between the products we sell and our community. Plus, from a conversion point of view we are finding that it doesn’t detract from users shopping experience. People who view the sparkle feed are currently converting at above average conversion rates. This is great news as we were worried it could distract customers from shopping. 

What specific feature did you like the most about Sparkle?

The moderation tool is probably the most important feature out of the box. In order to ensure the user generated content is in line with our brand, we needed to have the safe guard of moderation in place. The Sparkle moderator is quick and easy to use, and can even be accessed quickly from a mobile when we are out of the office.

Would you recommend Sparkle? If so why?

Of course! It’s great value, looks beautiful, and the support has been fantastic so far. Couldn’t be happier.