CASE STUDY Dicks Sporting Goods: Taking Control of Its E-commerce Operations Dicks company sells athletic apparel, outerwear, and sportswear, a variety of shoes, fitness equipment, and outdoor equipment. Dicks prides itself on combining small-business customer service with big-box retailer selection and values, and routinely outperforms competitors in customer service metrics such as phone and e-mail response time and delivery speed. Unlike some of its competitors, Dicks was quick to embrace the online channel and has maintained very strong e-commerce sales relative to its competitors in the sporting goods industry. For most of that period, Dicks relied on external vendors for its IT and e-commerce needs. The companys primary e-commerce vendor was eBay and its eBay Enterprise suite of e-commerce services. EBay handled Dicks back-end fulfilment processes and most aspects of their e-commerce presence for approximately 10 successful years. Analysts were also skeptical of Dicks significant financial commitment to large physical stores in an era dominated by online shopping. Dicks had grown to a size where its agreement with eBay was costing the company significant revenue. EBay collected a fixed commission on all items Dicks sold online, no matter how big, despite the fact that expensive items cost no more for eBay to process than cheaper ones. As Dicks e-commerce sales continued to grow, its deal with eBay was costing it more and more money Many bigger businesses have begun migrating their e-commerce operations away from external vendors and back within the control of the company to avoid these types of expenses. Also, it can be difficult to customize pre-made software and services from external vendors. Having total control of its e-commerce operations will allow Dicks to provide better support for unique omni-channel features, such as shipping online orders from physical Dicks stores. To that end, Dicks has also made plans to convert its stores into distribution centres as well as traditional retail showrooms. This will increase efficiency and improve delivery times, turning its perceived weakness of excessive bricks-and-mortar infrastructure into a strength. Approximately 80% of Dicks e-commerce orders are shipped within the geographical area of a physical store. In addition, customers can order online and pickup orders at local stores. The process some steps. In 2014, Dicks completed development of its e-commerce platform and began integrating its existing systems. Specific features of the new e-commerce platform that Dicks has prioritized include the ability to buy online and pick up items at a store, the ability to ship from or to a store, and its associate ordering system. The platform also features the ability to break down and test different pricing and marketing approaches by region, an improved search function, and better analytics capabilities.

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