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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.

Sporting Goods

More shoppers are heading online for the latest Sporting Goods items. Take a look at this snapshot of where that spending is taking place in the vertical.

Sporting Goods by category
YoY Sporting Goods sales

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

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.

Inflationary pressures emerge in tandem with increased ecommerce spending.

Sporting Goods merchants worldwide are faced with increasing production and fulfillment costs. Merchants must walk a fine line between absorbing costs while staying competitive. It’s key in today's competitive world to keep eye on AOV and pricing.

YoY Sporting Goods AOV
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0% 20% -40% -20% ApparelAccessories B2B Mid-pricedFashion Housewares Jewelry &Watches MusicalInstruments Health &Supplements Low TicketFashion Alcohol Tobacco &Cannabis Pet Supplies SportingGoods Beauty & Cosmetics Outdoor & Leisure Weapons &Accessories CPGProducts Baby Auto & Tires ConsumerElectronics Footwear Quarterly AOV Trend by Industry Vertical Mix-shift towards higher AOV items as consumers replace in-store spend to CNP spend for Auto Parts & Tires Combination of Mix-shift and discounting leadingtowards drop in AOV for Apparel Accessories Declining AOV Increasing AOV Mix-shift towards lower AOV items contributingtowards declining AOV in Consumer Electronics Discounting strategies in mid-price fashion led to declining AOV -41% -30% -24% -22% -21% -18% -11% -11% -3% -2% 2% 2% 3% 4% 8% 9% 12% 16% 17%
Omnichannel growth in Sporting Goods

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.

DIVE DEEPER

How to offer curbside pickup
in a time of COVID-19

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

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.

DIVE DEEPER

How fraudsters are changing targets,
tactics and techniques

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

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