“2008 Was A Banner Year For Wavewalk Kayaks”
Overall, 2008 was a banner year for Wavewalk kayaks:
Although the kayak market dropped 8% this year, our sales grew at a strong double-digit rate. Even this holiday season was remarkably good – much better than last year’s.
Traffic to our website increased at a double-digit rate too, with over 100,000 individuals visiting it this year. In average, each visitor spent more time on it than last year’s visitors had. On its busiest day this year our website received 630 visits. We conclude from these data that people’s interest in our website keeps growing.
The blog we launched in January ’08 is already a success, being one of our website’s most visited sections.
Customer satisfaction kept growing, and not a single client asked for any refund. Our customers kept sending us good reviews and interesting stories, pictures and movies. Many of them say that our W-kayak is the world’s best one-man fishing boat, even when compared to ‘real boats’, and not just to kayaks and canoes.
Interestingly, this year we had no claims to file against the trucking company that we ship our W-kayaks with.
Things haven’t always been so, which makes us appreciate this success, and care even more about our customers.
Yoav
Tags: fishing kayaks, kayak market, market
January 1st, 2009 at
Congratulations! That’s what happens when you offer a better product.
Mike
January 1st, 2009 at
Well done.
It’s good to hear something positive these days.
Marco
January 1st, 2009 at
I’m quite impressed with your success, and you deserve it.
QS
January 1st, 2009 at
GO WAVEWALK!
January 1st, 2009 at
The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) published a report called ’2007 RECREATIONAL BOATING – Statistical Abstract’.
According to that report, there was a 12% decrease in kayak sales in 2007 compared to 2006.
This means that while the kayak market has been been shrinking for the past two years, our sales kept growing at a good rate during that entire period.
Yoav
January 1st, 2009 at
Reading this makes me proud to be a Wavewalk kayaker!
It seems like you’re doing quite well without help from the paddling magazines
April
January 1st, 2009 at
Good Job!
Comfortable, dry and proud… who could ask for more!?
FW
January 1st, 2009 at
I would have thought that the kayak market fell more in 2008 than it did in 2007
January 1st, 2009 at
The 2007 NMMA report talks about a flat market for canoes and a 12% drop for kayaks.
The 8% decline in the 2008 kayak market is a number taken from a report issued to the public in December 08 by the CEO of the biggest manufacturer in this market.
I think neither the NMMA nor that publicly traded company have an exact picture of the situation in the kayak market because data are hard to collect. However, their numbers can serve as good indications to general trends.
Yoav
January 1st, 2009 at
How big is the canoe market relatively to the kayak market?
QS
January 1st, 2009 at
The kayak market is 3-3.5 times bigger than the canoe market, but ‘kayak’ here means all types of kayaks, including sit-in, SOT, outrigger etc., and in all applications, including recreation, whitewater, touring, fishing etc.
Altogether, there are over 400,000 units sold annually in the US canoe-kayak market.
Yoav
January 2nd, 2009 at
Just getting the new laptop up and running, sorry to be late commenting here. You’ve worked very hard and promoted the W with unfailing belief in it’s performance over the other kayaks on the market. It rocks and nothing comes close. My intrest of course is the fishing side of the boat. I’ve never used a paddle craft of any kind for fishing that provides the combination of performance and joy of use the W does. Well done on a banner year sir.
January 2nd, 2009 at
Thanks Jeff,
This website would have not been the same without your help.
You’re our kayak fishing guru!
Yoav