FYU: Sporting Goods & Exercise Equipment

With the college bowl match-ups all over the airwaves and that other little game – the Super Bowl – soon to be played, we thought it would be apropos to bounce down the Sport Goods & Exercise Equipment section of the monthly Consumer Intentions & Actions® survey, courtesy of our Retail Ratings Reports.

For Your Understanding today, we’re going to take a look at the top competitors in this category: Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Much like the Women’s Clothing segment, Walmart has experienced a little difficulty when it comes to maintaining its #1 ranking in Sporting Goods:

As you can see in the chart above, Walmart placed second to Dick’s in November, while the two retailers were pretty evenly matched in January, February, August, September, and December 2011.

So where are the weaknesses in Walmart’s game? For this, we can turn to our latest Retail Ratings Report. Just on the first few pages of this handy guide*, we can see that:

– Dick’s outscores Walmart in both the $50,000+ and $75,000+ income shopper segments (and by a wide margin);
– Among those planning to spend more on Sporting Goods over the next 90 days, Dick’s is the preferred retailer over Walmart. Walmart leads among shoppers planning to spend less;
– Dick’s is the favored Sporting Goods retailer in two out of the four census regions: Northeast and Midwest;
– Walmart’s got a Southern stronghold and places second to Big 5 Sporting Goods out West.

But let’s look a bit deeper with the Consumer Equity Index™ (CEI). The CEI – available exclusively within the Retail Ratings Reports – is a year-over-year index showing growth or decline of Consumer Preference Share (the % we collect each month for the store shopped most often). Here’s a key:

CEI = 100 (flat)
CEI = 105 (5% growth)
CEI = 95 (5% decline)

Our latest CEI ratings for Dick’s indicate that the big box baller is growing among its core shopper group – those earning $50,000+/year – as well as Female shoppers, while Walmart is declining in each of these groups. A graphical representation of the CEI for the top five retailers in Sporting Goods/Exercise Equipment (among $50,000+ income households):

Check out Walmart in this chart: it’s the lone Top 5 store for this segment in the red (read: the only one of these retailers seeing a decline among $50,000+ income shoppers). #sadface

Now you understand: With Dick’s and the rest of its big box buddies growing customer share among higher income consumers (who, let’s face it, typically have more money to spend on these types of items), Walmart’s getting left out in the cold, which is affecting the discounter’s overall standing among the general population.

For more information on this data, please contact BIGinsight™.

Source: Consumer Intentions & Actions® Survey, DEC-10 – DEC-11

* Retail Ratings Reports are available monthly for the following categories: Women’s Clothing, Men’s Clothing, Children’s Clothing, Shoes, Linens/Bedding/Draperies, Electronics, Hardware, Children’s Toys, Sporting Goods, Groceries, Health & Beauty Care, Prescription Drugs.

© 2012, Prosper®

BIGinsight™ is a trademark of Prosper Business Development Corp.

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