Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. was founded in 1948 with 644 stores in over 47 states mostly on the eastern side of the United States. Their main target consumer is the consumer wishing to purchase unique designs and the latest trends on the market. Dick’s prides themselves on being a high quality retailer while having competitive pricing. Dick’s has over 20,000 locations and employs more than 13,000.
Supply Chain Management
In 2012, Dick’s piloted a program they named “Ship From Store”; which provides the consumer the ability to create online orders in stores, gives them endless aisle experience and ships orders placed in-store for free (Giannopoulos, 2013). In addition, Dick’s created significant relationships …show more content…
Stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Sears, have sporting good departments within their stores, lending to the threat of substitute products as well (Davis, Ruiz & Alvarez, 2007). However, Dick’s has done a good job with industry growth by acquiring smaller companies like Golf Galaxy, a specialty retailer with world class selections of golf equipment, Blue Sombrero LLC, an online registration, web design and schedule management for youth sport and recreation leagues and three other specialty retail stores, True Runner, Field & Stream and Chelsea Collective (dickssportinggoods, …show more content…
Since the sporting goods industry has a smaller growth rate, new companies must utilize marketing and specialized merchandising such as localized professional and college teams (Davis, Ruiz & Alvarez, 2007).
Consumers generally are looking for the best quality at the lowest price. Dick’s understands this concept and to fight off the retailers with substitute products, Dick’s carries a wide variety of brands. Because of retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Sears carrying substitute products at lower prices, Dick’s began a price match guarantee within their stores (Davis, Ruiz & Alvarez, 2007).
Conclusion
Dick’s has done an excellent job of becoming a leader in the sporting goods industry. They have branded themselves with the top quality suppliers and cater to their athletic cliental. Dick’s has strongly supports their supply chain management with technology that automates their distribution centers, tracks and coordinates domestic and international freight, monitors the performance of vendors; helps to control costs and provides real-time insight into the productivity of their network (Giannopoulos,