 Sporting goods companies of all stripes--full-line chains, specialty chains, e-commerce retailers and manufacturers--are intensifying their Internet efforts. The activity is taking place despite several years of slow growth and projections of more lean times to come.
* Regional operators, including 19-store Sport Chalet in Southern California, 65-store MC Sports in the Midwest and 42-store JumboSports in Florida, this month announced a deal to source their Web operations to Global Sports Interactive (GSI).
* Nike, which experimented with a limited on-line offering earlier this year, is set to roll out what a company spokesman called a "vast array" of merchandise for sale on line by mid-June.
* Dick's Sporting Goods launched an internally operated site four months ago, and Edwin Watts golf shops more recently began selling a large assortment of equipment, apparel and shoes on its Web site.
The Internet and sporting goods is such a hot topic that the National Sporting Goods Association annual management conference, which took place this month, held a one-hour panel discussion devoted to the topic that had to be lengthened by a half-hour.
"What really brought this to the surface was the press given to e-commerce during the holidays," said NSGA executive director Jim Faltniek
Sourcing of Toys
As multinational organizations compete in a global economy, the focus is clearly on performance improvement and cutting costs. Naturally, the cost-cutting occurs in areas that require substantial capital investment during relatively short intervals. The challenge is to keep up with the latest technology, as well as to manage the labor component of a low-cost, high-volume operating environment. Offshore business process sourcing (BPO) presents an effective way to enhance the components of the supply chain. However, the complication is, of course, in the detail and, with going offshore in particular, it is important to acknowledge the possible challenges of long-distance, cross-cultural communication and in achieving a good understanding about the quality of work to be provided.
Quite some time ago, the developing economies moved beyond the manufacturing of goods such as toys and shoes, towards delivering more complex technical services. A generation of well educated and highly skilled professionals based in the major cities of developing economies is ready to take on the challenge.
With a labor-cost ratio of 5:1, and the latest infrastructure and technology platform to operate from, offshore service providers are able to contribute substantially to the business case. Those resources are presenting very good opportunities,
not just for multinational risk-takers, but increasingly for diligent financial organizations and the utility industries of developed countries. |
