Dick's Sporting Goods + UserTesting

Dick’s Sporting Goods has been serving athletes of all abilities for more than 72 years, priding itself on an unparalleled in-store shopping experience.

But then the global pandemic struck. Dick’s temporarily closed its 852 stores between March and May 2020 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

During that time, the sporting goods chain turned to UserTesting to help improve its online shopping experience, as well as the safety of its customers and team members who work in the stores.

“We used UserTesting to uncover a number of insights that we couldn't safely discover through field research in March and April,” said Matt Meurer, Senior UX Designer at Dick's Sporting Goods.

Previous testing had shown that athletes would prefer a contactless curbside pickup. With that in mind, and within 48 hours of the stores being closed, the team rolled out its first version of its curbside pickup app that allowed its customers to simply push a button when they arrived at the store.

They then turned again to UserTesting to see how the curbside check-in experience was working. Was it working well? Were there hiccups? What needed to change?

And they tested the customer experience using a feature that allowed alternative pickup options if their preferred store couldn't find their item.

Additionally, the Dick’s team used UserTesting to understand how athletes’ shopping habits changed, and the emotions they were feeling.

The impact of curbside pickup was immediate. In early spring, the team experienced a 1,000% increase in its online pickup business.

“This meant that athletes really resonated with the convenience that curbside provided them,” said Aaron Kojundic, Senior Product Manager at Dick’s. “And the trend remained strong through the summer and early fall—75% of our athletes still choose to pick up their order via our curbside service.”

During a time when the retail sector was in a tailspin, Dick's reported record sales in the second and third quarters. That included a 135% increase in 2020 ecommerce sales year-to-date through the third quarter and a 300% increase in buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) sales year-to-date.

“The financials are great, but as a team, we're really motivated by elevating the customer experience,” Meurer said. “And the launch of curbside pickup resulted in the largest increase in customer satisfaction that we've ever seen, increasing by more than 10% when we launched this new offering.”

During an earnings call with investors in August, Lauren Hobart, Dick’s President, praised the addition of the curbside pickup option,

“It's a business that we believe strongly is here to stay,” she said. “And we believe it will be an important player throughout the back half of the year and into the holiday and into the future.”