Full-line sporting goods retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sports Authority are top of mind when consumers think about where to shop for sporting goods, (including footwear and apparel) but the larger and broader mass merchant stores like Wal-Mart and Target rise to the top when consumers are prompted with retail store names.  This is just one observation made in the soon-to-be-released SportsOneSource 2009 Where America Shops report.


The survey, which was conducted via the Internet in late June as part of the broader Where America Shops report, sampled a cross-section of the American population ages 13 and older.  A top-line review of the study will be made available in the SGB magazine Fall issue, due out in mid-September. The full study will be available later this month.
Respondents were asked to list retailers they were aware of that sell sporting goods including footwear, apparel and hardgoods. 

 

Full-line sporting goods retailers are at the top of list, with Dick’s Sporting Goods (42%) and The Sports Authority (32%) at the top of the list for unaided awareness levels.  Both retailers ranked ahead of discount/mass merchant giant Wal-Mart (28%), indicating that when shopping for sporting goods, the first thought would be to go to a full-line retailer rather than an a other type of retailer.


Foot Locker (21%) was the mall specialty retailer mentioned most often and Cabela’s (10%) was the most often mentioned outdoor retailer on an unaided level.


Combining the unaided and aided awareness responses, Wal-Mart received the largest number of respondents (86%) indicating they were aware of the retailer, Foot Locker was second (85%) and Target was third (82%).  However, Foot Locker was the top-ranked retailer in awareness among teens and young adults.
A bit surprising given the focus of the retailer, Foot Locker actually had a higher overall awareness level with females than males when assessing the adult (over 25 years old) survey demographic.                    


Foot Locker’s unaided brand awareness was even higher among female teens. 


This may have been boosted by the presence of Lady Foot Locker in the mall as well.  Not surprisingly, Target ranked higher in awareness with females respondents as well.  In fact, Females tend to have a greater awareness level among many of the retailers measured. Only five retailers, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop and Cabela’s, received higher awareness levels from males over the awareness level received by females.


Outdoor retailers received in general the lowest awareness ratings among the retailers measured.  The number of stores compared to the other type of retailers is extremely small, limiting the exposure they have to the general population.  L.L. Bean was the only outdoor retailer to rank in the top 25 of awareness for teens.  Bass Pro Shop and Cabela’s also were in the top 25 awareness levels for adults.
Regionally, Dick’s Sporting Goods continues to make in-roads in the western U.S., thanks to a heavy national marketing campaign and new stores in both California and Oregon. Compared to last year, Dicks Sporting Goods awareness level in California has increased 14 percentage points, moving into the top 25, and has seen a 19 percentage point increase in the Northwest. 

 

Dick’s still lags behind Joe’s, REI, Sports Authority and Cabela’s in the region.  Opening in six Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in former Joe’s locations this fall should go a long way towards expanding the awareness level in the Northwest.


Geographic awareness levels may be of greater importance to the regional players than the national recognition.  Modell’s Sporting Goods, which did not make the overall top 25, has 64% of the Northeast respondents mention the retailer as a store they are aware of for sporting goods.


Sports Authority received their highest awareness levels in the Rocky Mountain states were 73% of those respondents are aware of the retail brand.


Who Gets the Consumer in the Door?


With price and quality products the stated primary reasons for consumers deciding to shop at a particular store for sporting goods, it should come as no surprise that Wal-Mart (50%) and Target (32%) led the list of retailers that were visited by respondents when shopping for sporting goods. Dick’s Sporting Goods was a close third, with 30% indicating they had shopped at one of their stores.  Sports Authority (22%) and Kmart (21%) rounded out the top five retailers for shopping visits from the Where America Shops survey respondents.          

 

Respondents that were aware of a retailer were asked if they have visited that retailer in the past year specifically for sporting goods including footwear, apparel, hardgoods and equipment.
Foot Locker, which was at the top of the awareness levels, dropped out of the top 5 for adult visits, with 20% indicating that they have actually visited the retailer in the past year.  That number increases 15 percentage points among Teens respondents that are aware of Foot Locker.


There is a dramatic drop in the percentage of Hispanics that have visited Dick’s Sporting Goods compared to the percentage of Caucasians and African Americans.  Only 18% of Hispanics aware of Dick’s Sporting Goods have visited the store in the last year.
Foot Locker has a significantly greater number of African Americans visiting its stores than any other ethnic group.  Forty-one percent of African American respondents have visited a Foot Locker in the past year compared to 28% of Hispanics and 14% of Caucasians.


Warehouse club format stores Sam’s Club and Costco were visited by the same percentage of Caucasian and Hispanic respondents, while the level of African American respondents who have visited each of these two club stores was not high enough to make the overall list.
In general, mall specialty stores were visited more often by African Americans and Hispanics than the level visited by Caucasians.


Males tend to visit retailers for sporting goods in greater percentages than do females.  Females did have a greater percentage of respondents visit department stores to purchase sporting goods products, presumably footwear and apparel, with the only exception being Sears where a greater percentage of males have visited the retailer.


Discount/mass merchant retailers Wal-Mart and Target reverse their positions when it comes to the age of the respondents visiting their stores.  As the age of a respondent goes up, so does the percentage of respondents that have visited Wal-Mart, while the direct opposite is true for Target.  Another discount/mass retailer, Kmart, peaks it percentage of visits among respondents age 35-54.
Household income also impacted the stores visited. 

REI has a general upward trend as a respondent’s household income increases.  Respondents with a household income over $125,000 were the income group most likely to have visited the outdoor specialty retailer.


When respondents were asked to rate the retailers they have visited specifically for sporting goods, it was the outdoor retailers that dominated the ratings of many of the attributes measured throughout the survey.  Other than “Having a Low Price” and “Convenient Store Locations” an outdoor retailer was as the top of the list.


Cabela’s received the highest average ratings from their consumers than any of the other retailers measured. Cabela’s received the highest ratings for having a “Variety of Product Offerings” and “Having Products in Stock”.  When thinking about the “Customer Service” respondents who have visited Cabela’s in the past year ranked only L.L. Bean higher. 


Cabela’s fell slightly below REI and L.L. Bean when respondents were asked to rate “Quality of Products” that each of the retailers carry.
In the battle for Full-Line Sporting Goods retailers supremacy The Sports Authority outranked Dicks Sporting Goods in every category with the exception of “Carrying Quality Products”. 


The greatest difference in the average ratings was in the perceived price of the products sold. Sports Authority received an average rating nearly a full point higher than that of Dicks Sporting Goods.
Lady Foot Locker received the highest ratings of Mall Specialty retailers in all but two of the categories.  Finish Line took the top spot among Mall Specialty retailers in having a “Variety of Product Offerings”, while Champs Sports received the highest ratings of Mall Specialty retailers for “Having a Low Price”.


The Family Footwear retailers measured in this survey did not fair as well as some of the other retailers they were rated against. 
Other than “Low Price” and “Convenient Store Location” where both Payless and Famous Footwear were ranked in the top ten, no other Family Footwear retailer was ranked in the top ten in any of the other attributes measured.  Famous Footwear was the highest ranked Family Footwear retailer in all of the other attributes measured by respondents who have visited the retailers in the past year. 


The SportsOneSource 2009 Where America Shops report will be packaged in various formats to customize or optimize the benefits to the user.  The full report is over 250 pages, but can be broken down into specific retailer data, such as how a consumer that shops at one retailer ranks that retailer against its competition in a number of categories.  The report will also be broken into trade channels.  The report is free to SportScanINFO retail reporting partners.


For more information on the study, including the customization of the data for a specific project or report, please contact SOS Research at 704.987.3450 or e-mail to: Research@SportsOneSource.com.