Dick’s Sporting Goods obtains early insight into merchandise

Dick’s Sporting Goods is applying advanced analytics to better understand what products it should sell, and at what cost.



Dick’s is partnering with predictive analytics solutions provider First Insight, to help make faster and more accurate decisions in the areas of product design, merchandise buying and pricing decisions on thousands of goods and designs.



Through online consumer engagements, First Insight enables Dick’s to gather real-time consumer preference and pricing data on candidate products months before they are launched in the market. The data is filtered through First Insight's predictive analytic solution to determine which products present the greatest sales and gross margin opportunity.



Thus Dick’s is empowering designers, merchants, buyers and planners to gain real-time consumer predictive analytics throughout the merchandising organization and the product development lifecycle.



"First Insight is now a critical element in our product decision-making process," said Lee Belitsky, executive VP, planning, replenishment, allocations, and product development, Dick’s Sporting Goods. "By using First Insight to test items -- both branded and private label -- before making our buys, we are increasing speed to market of the right items. After evaluating the solution for an extended period, we have projected the solution will deliver a strong return on investment."



By determining what features make consumers most likely to buy a product, and at what price, as early as in the design process, Dick’s can greatly increase sales and turn while decreasing the need for markdowns or liquidation. The availability of predictive analytics, combined with the unprecedented ease of mass online consumer engagement, is a potent mixture that can make merchandising much more accurate and profitable.