Retail Environment Has Significantly Improved Since Last Year
The retail environment has suffered tremendously between 2016 and 2017, due to a combination of negative factors that affected foot traffic and the pricing power of many brands and third-party retailers. Spending from tourists declined suddenly as a result of weakness in the emerging markets and concerns about terrorism, and retailers found themselves with excess inventories that they had to dump at significant discounts, generating margin pressures in the whole retail industry.
In the sportswear and sports equipment industry, the closures of players like Sports Authority, Sports Chalet and others exerted further margin pressures and flooded the market with discounted offerings. However, the operating landscape has improved significantly in 2018 and the excess inventories in key areas for Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) such as footwear, apparel, and hunting seem to be a thing of the past for most retailers.
