Ecommerce Pulse Report
Ecommerce Pulse Report for Sporting Goods
Online Sporting Goods sales are affected by all kinds of outside influences — the season, the sports celebrity of the moment, pop culture, social media and the economy. Anticipating the equipment and products customers will want and having it when and where they want it is a constant challenge. See how your company performance compares to industry peers from the Signifyd Commerce Network.
Sure, everyone agreed that ecommerce was on an impressive growth path.
What nobody knew was that those rosy projections weren’t even close. Instead, 2020 heralded the Great Acceleration, a turning point at which ecommerce accelerated at warp speed as consumers discovered the convenience and increased selection available through online buying.
YoY Sporting Goods Sales
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Ecommerce has been propelled five years into the future, with sales figures we were expecting in 2025 arriving today.
Welcome to the future, a world in which online sales have become increasingly important to Sporting Goods merchants. The prominent role of ecommerce requires new thinking around merchandising, marketing and customer experience.
“Retail executives have been fixated on the dramatic increase in ecommerce sales, but the more interesting story is less about the last few months and more about the next few years. Based on the totality of transactions passing through Signifyd’s network, we see that this cohort of new users are buying online for the first time, and then returning to shop online again at the same or another merchant within one month. Returning to shop in short order is the way new spending habits form and share-of-wallet shifts.”
J. BENNETT, SVP OPERATIONS & CORP. DEVELOPMENT, SIGNIFYD
Sporting Goods Growth by Category
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Sporting Goods companies have seen impressive growth, but not all segments are created equal. Wide variation in sales performance exists between segments.
When we dig into the numbers, it’s apparent that not all segments in the Sporting Goods vertical move in lockstep. We see movement in outdoor equipment, for instance, as seasons change. Although all have seen impressive growth north of 100% in recent months.
Pulling the levers on pricing and promotions has had a profound effect on the overall business.
Sporting Goods merchants need to manage the balance between attracting additional business with promotions and joining a race to the bottom with competitors. Average order value can serve as a key gauge of the effect that pricing and promotions are having on the overall business.
Omnichannel Growth in Sporting Goods
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Sporting goods shoppers have shown a new enthusiasm for ordering online and picking up in store or at the curbside.
Consumers shopping for sporting goods have discovered the convenience and efficiency of buying online and picking up either in the store or at the curbside. Consumers have indicated that now that they’ve tried the channel, they see no reason to abandon it. This chart shows how Sporting Goods consumers’ adoption of in-store and curbside pickup has changed over time.
Fraud pressure is a moving target with fraudsters constantly probing for weaknesses.
Fraudsters target the various segments of the Sporting Goods vertical in different times and ways. Signifyd’s Fraud Pressure Index charts the rise and fall of very high risk — and presumably fraudulent — orders over time. Fraud levels are compared to a Q1 benchmark of 100%.
Fraud pressure in sporting goods by category
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Current fraud trends to watch out for
With big surges comes operational gaps. Expect challenges from these fraud pressure vectors:
eBay Marketplace “Triangulation” Fraud
The fraudster creates genuine seller profile on marketplaces and uses stolen card data to fulfill the order from another retailer. Attack vector moved to popular SKUs over the summer.
Look-Alike Fraud Websites
Fraudsters clone brand websites to replicate brand look onto similar URL, but do not ship product after accepting payment. Trending SKUs will be targeted.
Touchless Delivery Abuse Risk
As FedEx and UPS moved to no-signature delivery, retailers saw an uptick of Item-Not-Recieved (INR) and Significantly-Not-As-Described (SNAD) claims.
Curbside Pickup BOPIS Mule Fraud
Many retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods and Best Buy have accelerated BOPIS (touchless curbside pickup) to counter store closures. They also saw an uptick in mule fraud.
Methodology
What’s in our Sporting Goods Index?
The Ecommerce Pulse Report from Signifyd was designed to provide ongoing coverage of changes and trends in the ecommerce landscape. The data in this report illustrates how the Sporting Goods vertical is performing now compared to historical performance. Data is aggregated by category across thousands of ecommerce merchants globally.
Categories
- Sporting Goods
- Leisure (Media, Toys, Hobbies & Games)
- Outdoor (Camping, Hiking & Fishing)
- Weapons & Accessories
Fast Facts
- Full fidelity on 60M orders per month (session behavior, cart data, payment info, shipping and billing info)
- 98% of transactions are identified automatically because of the breadth and strength of our network