Sun & Ski Sports history

The IBM Personal Computer was released in 1981 and went on to dominate the market.

Personal computers (PCs) entered households worldwide. For example in 1983, Best Buy strengthened their emphasis on selling the latest consumer electronics.

Most notably, Amazon.com, now the world’s largest Internet retailer, is founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994.

In 1995, Pierre Omidyar starts AuctionWeb which later becomes eBay.

In 2004, Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake launch Shopify to sell their snowboard equipment in Ottawa, Ontario.

Harry Gordon Selfridge had distinguished himself at Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago, which remained a landmark in the city until Macy’s bought it in 2005

His ambitions proved to be successful, as by September 2006 Sun & Ski Sports had grown to a chain of 18 brick-and-mortar stores across the United States and sold product for just six sports: watersports, snow sports, cycling, skating, running, and camping.

Contactless payment technologies (known as today “tap”) begin with the Visa payWave in 2007.

In 2011, Facebook rolled out sponsored stories as a form of early advertising.

Then in 2012, Steve Rath and Frank Stanley became co-owners, establishing a new leadership team that would strategize tactics for continued business growth while also creating new opportunities for the future of the company’s customer experience.

The growth of sales in physical stores in 2018 was merely 3.7%. Meanwhile, ecommerce sales saw a 15% jump.

With ecommerce sales growing, the appeal of malls has gradually declined, hitting a 20-year low in sales in 2019.

Current projections show that by 2020, 90% of businesses will use social media for a portion of their customer service.