Sports Retailers Advance Online Business Platform To Get Rid Of The Current Predicament

According to the world clothing shoes and hat net, in the former "hidden worries of traditional sports retailers", the reporter has already introduced that due to excessive inventory, consumer tastes change and

Under the impact of the platform, sports retailers in the United States and the United States are facing a severe market test.

The most obvious example is that many sporting goods retailers are finally struggling to get out of bankruptcy.

The dilemma of sports retailers

In 2015 alone, the sports retailers that declared bankruptcy were Sports Authority, City Sports and Vestis Retail Group retail group.

Including Sports Chalet, Eastern Mountain and Bob 's Stores).

So, can offline retailers really have no way to go? Can they help themselves by embracing the Internet age? What changes have they made in the face of such a situation?

Sports (Hibbett Sports).

In fact, the sporting goods industry in the United States is relatively simple. The three main retailers are Dick sports, Big 5 sports and Hilbert sports. Other large sporting goods companies are mostly regional or professional companies.

They are mainly supplied by upstream manufacturers such as golf clubs, basketball shoes, camping stoves and all other sporting goods, and are sold to consumers through two main channels, namely, physical shops and networks.

With the development of network technology, the boundaries between manufacturers, entities and sellers are becoming more and more blurred.

Manufacturers are also starting to sell directly to consumers through the Internet and physical stores, and traditional retailers have their own websites.

According to IBISWorld data, as of 2015, sales of sporting goods stores in the United States amounted to US $48 billion, far exceeding US $39 billion 800 million in 2012.

According to the statistics of Euromonitor, in the 35 years before 2015, the participation rate of American high school sports increased from 25% to 35%.

Compared with 1980s, the number of girls taking part in sports has doubled.

The sporting goods industry in the United States is dominated by several large suppliers.

For example, the protagonist of our article today, Nike and Andrea, the leading supplier of Hilbert sports, a national retailer, accounted for more than 70% of its inventory in fiscal year 2016.

Hilbert sports is a comprehensive sporting goods retailer in Bermingham, Alabama.

As of September 2015, the company operates 1025 stores in 32 states.

Locating small and medium communities

The unique business model adopted by Hilbert sports is the secret of its survival in the fierce market competition.

Hilbert sports in Alabama, the United States regards the southeastern United States as a key area for distribution of stores.

It has about 9200 employees in the United States, and its more than 1000 stores are 5000 square feet of small shops, while Dick sports stores average 50000 square feet.

It is located at the county level consumer market of 30 thousand to 100 thousand people. About 81% of the stores are located in shopping centers along the street, including independent stores.

The remaining 19% are in closed shopping centers.

In order to choose stores in the commercial centers of cities and towns, Hilbert sports usually chooses WAL-MART as a neighbor and forms a close cooperative relationship with them.

Hilbert sports is reluctant to fight online platform, like other traditional offline retailers, that the electronic business platform can not provide consumers with a full range of service experience.

They believe that:

First, the product category of the e-commerce platform is limited.

In the sporting goods industry, the magic weapon to attract consumers is quality brands.

Many quality brands are very concerned about discount information, product display and pre-sale and after-sales service in order to maintain their image.

Therefore, not all brands are willing to sell products online.

Secondly, shopping experience is different.

Most sporting goods need to be tested offline before deciding whether to buy them, such as fishing gear, bicycles, golf clubs, baseball gloves, etc.

Third, the quality of service is different.

Many sporting goods also need high level of service support, which can be met only by looking for a store next door.

However, just recently, the sport said that due to the "very unfavorable sales trend", its comparable store sales will drop by 10% in the second quarter of July 29th.

As a result, the stock price of the same period fell by 0.19 dollars to 0.22 dollars.

Advance online business platform

Over the years, data reports have shown that online store sales are becoming the lifeline of many retail businesses.

Nevertheless, some enterprises are still skeptical about Internet sales.

However, offline sporting goods retailers are losing their online sales to online competitors without having to mention Internet sales.

As a result, he decided to launch e-commerce channels.

Hilbert sports launched the new e-commerce website Hibbett.com, mainly for consumers to provide product sales, membership plan, store product information publicity, free shipping and shop rebates and other services, including sales of goods, including jackets, accessories, children's wear, sportswear, sports shoes and sports equipment.

Consumers can log on the website to view the product release schedule, search the store products, and choose the right products.

"Although the retail environment is tough, the company continues to improve its business as a long-term development goal," said President and CEO of the company. "Launching the e-commerce website is a key strategic goal of Hilbert sports.

We will also invest more slowly under the full channel structure.

Bill Quinn, the vice president of digital commerce, said Bill Quinn was mistaken that consumers did not like buying their brands online. But after a series of surveys, they found consumers' love for online shopping.

So they decided to launch a virtual store for the first time.

"We have changed our mind because we need to develop a new channel to provide opportunities and development.

It is at this point that we have decided to take a step forward and start investing in online stores.

In fact, this is only part of Hilbert's sports all channel strategy.

The company has already formulated a strategic plan to deal with market competition, which is divided into 3 stages in general.

The first phase is to implement a new sales point system in the third quarter of 2017 to achieve pparent inventory and Cross shop product mix across retail chains.

In addition, enhance customer relationship management capabilities, and more effectively communicate with 5 million loyal users.

The second stage is to increase the direct delivery service to stores and conduct pilot projects at the end of fiscal year 2017.

The third stage is to develop e-commerce channels and integrate with offline stores to form seamless services.

However, due to the impact of market competition and the slump of the offline retail market, the electricity business plan, which was originally planned for the second half of fiscal year 2018, is now ahead of schedule.

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