Dive Brief:
- Academy Sports and Outdoors is partnering with Instacart to offer same-day delivery of products across camping, fishing, team sports and other categories, Instacart said in a press release on Monday.
- The sporting goods retailer is integrating more than 300 stores across 21 states into Instacart’s marketplace, enabling shoppers to order goods for delivery in as soon as one hour. The company will charge the same prices on Instacart as it does in its stores.
- In addition to Academy Sports and Outdoors, Instacart now has more than 2,200 national and local retailers on its platform, per the release.
Dive Insight:
Academy Sports and Outdoors is widening its reach through delivery partnerships and physical store openings.
In June, the retailer enlisted Uber Eats to provide same-day delivery services to sporting goods shoppers, joining the platform alongside other companies like Choice Pet, Blick Art Materials and Kiehl’s. Through the partnership, U.S. customers in the South, Midwest and Southeast can order on-demand or scheduled deliveries through the Uber Eats app.
“We’re committed to serving our customers wherever and however they choose to shop, delivering a seamless experience across every channel as we continue to expand our omnichannel presence,” Chad Fox, chief customer officer at Academy Sports and Outdoors, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Instacart offers another convenient way to shop Academy’s broad assortment at the same great prices customers find in our stores.”
As Academy integrates its existing store fleet onto Instacart, the retailer is plotting its brick-and-mortar expansion. Over the next five years, the retailer plans to open 125 stores, CEO Steve Lawrence said on an April call with analysts. While most of those stores will open in legacy markets or markets where the company has been for at least five years, a fifth will open in new markets, Lawrence said.
Academy’s statement that it will charge consistent pricing across its Instacart and store purchases comes as the delivery platform suspends its controversial price testing program. Last year, the company ended a program that allowed retailers to charge online customers different prices than in-store shoppers, a move it made after Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative investigated the practice.
Along with Academy Sports and Outdoors, Instacart has added more retailers to its roster, further extending its reach beyond grocery stores. Last month, Tractor Supply teamed up with Instacart to provide same-day deliveries across its more than 2,400 stores in as soon as an hour. The deal came as the company aims to bolster its final-mile deliveries.
Academy Sports and Outdoors is mapping out its online and offline expansion following a positive quarterly earnings report. In Q1, the company reported a 6.7% jump in net sales to $1.4 billion, and its comparable sales saw a 2.9% bump year over year. The retailer’s net income also jumped 14.3% year over year to $52.7 million.
