Bustin Through the Online Retail Barrier

Bustin Lonboards N.Y.C. is a longboard manufacturer with a single retail outlet in Manhattan. I discovered them because of the unmatched experience I received on their website, while shopping for a new longboard last spring. The value proposition for Bustin is simple: educate the customer, and then allow them to individually customize from the selection of quality products that Bustin manufactures.
Bustin has an advantage over national brands of longboards with their ability to mass customize. They offer decks that are designed to perform optimally in all styles and applications (campus cruising, downhill racing, carving etc.) then allow the customer to completely personalize the artwork and setup of the board. This is important, since a major component of longboarding is self expression and no consumer is overly interested in riding on the exact same board as their friend.
The retailer is further separated from its competitors by offering a very unique experience. Bustin creates an experience that nearly reaches the standard of walking into a store but adds the benefit of having their very best sales representative ready to great me as I arrive. The experience compared to other longboard retailers (ones with stores included) is far more educational. I sometimes feel bad for wasting a salesman’s time when I’m just browsing and not interested in buying at the moment. But Online I enjoy reading about a product and learning about what makes it unique without purchase pressure. The online experience with Bustin offers this and pairs it with a site that is easy and fun to navigate. The website’s depth of testimonials, videos, and of course, the “design your own board” features were so easy to use that the site became a frequently visited part of my leisure time. Oh and I did end up buying my board from there.
The price for a Bustin longboard is in the right range for a good quality complete board. Setups of similar quality range between $180 and $300 from a local store. All of Bustin’s offerings are between $195 and $235 and are guaranteed to be unique.
Convenience for Bustin is probably its lowest score in terms of RVP. The first thing you see when you begin to design a board is the estimated wait time before your board is started. This is explained, as the order is unique, so waiting 5 days wasn’t a big deal. Once the board was finished it had to be shipped. Since I don’t like spending lots of money on shipping, I had to wait 2 weeks for it to arrive. There are options, for the impatient, allowing you to select from a narrow array of premade decks (losing your choice of design) and then paying a little more for priority shipping.
Fortunately, after waiting 3 weeks, when I opened my parcel I was presently surprised to see the board completely assembled and ready to use... unfortunately it had snowed that day, so the only thing I couldn’t order was a longer skating season.

Sources:


http://www.bustinboards.com/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bustin-Boards-Custom-Longboards/9244515490