Reaching Higher Peaks
Lessons from Experiencing 100% YoY Ecommerce Growth with DICK’S Sporting Goods’ Scott Casciato
The online buying experience is always evolving, so it’s table stakes for companies to be on their toes and ready to adjust when the market tells them to. But being prepared to adjust and actually making it happen are two different things.
At DICK’S Sporting Goods, its customers, who are referred to as “athletes,” are truly running the show, and Scott Casciato is the man who takes their needs and delivers solutions to them via DICK’S ecommerce platforms. Whether it’s scaling up operations during peak seasons, or rethinking an entire digital experience because the athletes weren’t responding how the internal team predicted, DICK’S turns feedback into a funnel for change.
Casciato is the VP of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK’S, and he says the reason DICK’S has been able to meet the changing needs of customers is because the company has been listening and building for this digital future for years.
“The foundation that we built really allowed us to scale this year really quickly,” Casciato says. “We’ve been through all the load tests dynamics that you go through at holiday, we’ve built the technology stack that can support the traffic that we knew that we were going to get. We’ve been through the trials and tribulations of how to test, what to test, where to find the failure modes, and we’ve got really talented people that work on that stuff every day. We’ve built controls internally to manage where things might not be working appropriately and to be able to balance that. And as you think about what happened last year, specifically with curbside, it is an example of, it took us four years to become an overnight success.”
Part of the reason that DICK’S digital platforms are successful is because of the work that goes into them constantly. There are tests and use cases being run at all times, and DICK’S is always listening to feedback in order to keep making the experiences better, even if that means going against what the initial plans were.
“We’ve gotten really good at testing and specifically on the site with how we’re thinking about the experience online… We’ve really developed a muscle around building an experience and testing it and iterating on it to figure out what’s really resonating with the athlete most. So everything from shopping experiences on our site all the way down through the conversion funnel to fulfillment, right? And speed and how we’re communicating with our athletes. So I think we’ve learned so much, and I’m constantly reminded when we get these, we all kind of make bets when we launch these tests like what do think’s going to happen? And I think I’m wrong so often, it’s so important to test.”
It’s also important to be honest with customers about what to expect and when, especially as it relates to something like peak season and fulfillment. Casciato says that through a number of peak seasons, he’s learned some important lessons that now color how he approaches other areas of the ecommerce experience.
“I historically thought that during, for example, Black Friday weekend speed was really important, right?” Casciato says. “And it turns out that weekend in particular speed is not the most important, getting what you want is the most important. So getting the deal is the most important. I think it makes sense because most people are thinking, I’ve got three or four weeks that this thing can get to me. I’m not super concerned to get it next week, just to make sure that I get it. So that’s one that we adjust in terms of making sure that we’re really being honest with how we’re going to fulfill.”
At the end of the day, all of the things that have made DICK’S successful in the digital world are the same things that have set them apart from the competition in retail stores: it’s the attention to the customer experience and always responding to their needs.
To hear more about how DICK’S is building its online and omnichannel operations, tune into Up Next in Commerce.
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