How does Camping World earn its profits?

Camping World is the domestic leader in new and used RV sales, so why does its business model more resemble Apple's walled garden ecosystem?

July 2017

Booming RV Sales

The RV business has been a bonanza. Since 2008 economic downturn, RV sales have been moving up rapidly, and its been a powerful force. for enthusiasts. Freedom, travel, exploration, family, these aren’t functional needs, but they are emotional needs. Trailers to motorhomes, there’s a product for every economic tier.

Not only are more RVs being sold each year, but the total revenue is growing more than the units, showing that higher priced units are being sold more, continuing the bonanza for RV dealers.

"Today, what we have is the single-largest RV and camping company that the world has ever known. Bigger than any manufacturer, bigger than anything."

Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World

Camping World has is the largest seller of RVs in the country, and is the single largest dealer of Thor and Winnebago (17%).

Marcus quote “we aren’t an RV dealership”. So what gives? How can the biggest seller of RVs not consider themselves an RV dealership? Wouldn’t you want to be the king of this growth channel?

Wouldn’t you want to keep your ASPs flat given the power you have over the market via market share? Why wouldn’t you keep the price higher for your captive audience of buyers?

Multiple graphs

Scroll away

As the bottom of the container approaches the top of the page, the graph is classed with graph-scroll-below. A little more css allows the graph slide out of view gracefully:

.graph-scroll-below #graph{
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 0px;
}

Mobile

On mobile centering the graph and sections while adding a some padding for the first slide is a good option:

@media (max-width: 925px)  {
  #graph{
    width: 100%;
    transform: translate(-50%, 0);
    margin-left: 50%;
  }

  #sections{
    position: relative;
    margin: 0px auto;
    padding-top: 400px;
  }
}