Add Dick’s to the list of retail chains in large boxes that reported striking online sales streams amid the pandemic.
Dick’s Sporting Goods shares (DKS) rose more than 15% on Wednesday after beating Wall Street’s chain expectations of both revenue ($ 2.71 billion against $ 2.46 billion expected) and earnings ($ 3.21 per share versus $ 1.20 expected). Overall, online sales rose 194% in Q2. That stat comes one week after Target said its online sales in 1952 went up by 195% and Walmart said its online sales increased by 97%. Best Buy ordered them all, with online sales rising in Q2 by 242%, its biggest quarter growth of e-commerce ever.
These four chains send a terrible signal about where the American retail trend is headed, in case anyone still doubts it before the pandemic. If you need more examples, Urban Outfitter reported that new digital customers increased by 70% in Q2, and online-only retailer Etsy’s Q2 sales rose by 137%.
U.S. e-commerce rose overall in Q2 by 44%, the largest quarterly profit ever, and e-commerce now accounts for 16.1% of total U.S. retail spending One year ago, that figure was 10.8%. To dismiss all this as pure as a result of the pandemic would be short-sighted.
But for Dick’s, the story is not just that Americans shop more online.
An employee of Dick’s Sporting Goods in Destiny USA mall delivers products to a store as customers pick up goods from retailers who pick up curbside as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions become easier in Syracuse, New York, US , May 15, 2020 REUTERS / Zachary Krahmer
Dick’s online sales figures include sidewalk sales, a service that the chain continued to offer at many of its locations throughout the pandemic. (In June, Dick’s reopened most of its stores to retailers in need of masks.) Dick’s pick-up option along with its “ship out of stock” option consisted of 75% of online order completion in Q2.
On the revenue call, Dick’s CEO Ed Stack made it clear that he thinks the sidewalk will remain huge for Dick’s outside the pandemic.
“I think the curb will speed up,” Stack said. ‘It started as a security piece. People wanted it because they did not want to get in touch with anyone else. It is now becoming a convenience store. ”
During the call, Stack spent a lot of time emphasizing that he believes Americans began to risk their homes for more fitness activities in Q2. But it wasn’t just fitness: camping, fishing, walking and sailing were all also strong categories for Dick’s in Q2. That speaks to the wide selection of product categories that the chain sells.
“I think the fitness business will be very good everywhere,” Stack said. “And people know that to fight the pandemic, or whatever follows, people need to be healthy. And that does not mean we have a lot of marathon runners, but people will come out and they will run, they will buy a treadmill, they will pick up some weights, even if they’s light weights, kettlebells, this very fitness trend … We’re not seeing that change, even if COVID-19 has been in our rearview mirror for a while. “
Stack now also had high praise for the golf business – yes, golf, the sector that was severely threatened just four years ago. (In 2016 and 2017, respectively, Nike and Adidas both left the golf equipment company.)
“The golf business has been great,” Stack said, for both Dick’s and Golf Galaxy, which Dick bought in 2007. “There are a number of young people who came into the game because they did not play football or football or any other sport … Men, women and children have actually all jumped into this game and we expect it to continue will by the balance of the year. “
It helps that national rounds of golf were played in June with 14%; Dick’s is a beneficiary of that striker.
