Brands, Service, Value Keys to E-Commerce Success for Sports Superstore Online.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 1998--At the recent Sports Interactive '98 World Conference, held at the World Trade Center in New York, Helio Fialho, chief executive officer of Sports Superstore Online (http://www.shopsports.com), delivered compelling arguments to an attentive audience as he spoke on the subject of "Selling Sporting Goods and Services Over the Internet and Merchandising Strategies Needed to Attain Success."

Fialho stated: "To succeed with e-commerce, a sports retailer must initially make compelling offers that create a value proposition to motivate the first-time buyer to engage in an online transaction. This is accomplished by offering the best brands, best service and best value."

Fialho cautioned: "Value is not just a price issue. It is essentially made up of three main components: the shopping experience, merchandising and customer service. Each one both independently and collectively must provide compelling reasons for the online shopper to click the buy button."

Fialho's comments are backed by recent consumer-behavior research. Studies have shown that consumers in general are more demanding than ever and that buying decisions are being based more often on a complex matrix of variables where price is not always most important.

Fialho believes that the objective of a well-designed e-commerce site should be to transfer Web browsing to shopping activity. Sports Superstore accomplishes this transfer by carefully segmenting and merchandising its 10 shops to the end user. Then, with its carefully designed navigation and product information, the customer feels a natural progression toward clicking the buy button.

"This is not much different than strategy in a brick-and-mortar retail store," Fialho stated. "A store full of browsers doesn't pay the bills. The goal is to turn those browsers into shoppers. Sports Superstore Online accomplishes that every day, because we give our consumers a compelling reason to shop."

Fialho commented: "Unfortunately, many e-commerce sites lose focus of their primary goal, which should be to sell product. Content can definitely create added value, but only if carefully implemented into the overall design of the site. Consumers do not want to be confused by irrelevant or misplaced content."

Sports Superstore Online continues to experience traffic and sales growth, but its main focus will always be on the customer.

Fialho, as he always does, ended his presentation at the Sports Interactive World Conference with comments about the customer, saying: "When making business decisions at Sports Superstore Online, the customer is always considered first. One question that I continually ask my staff is, `How will this impact the customer?' That is what is important."

About Sports Superstore Online

Sports Superstore Online is the pioneer of sports e-commerce, with its launch on America Online in November 1996. Since then, it has become one of the premier online retailers in that space.

As a division of Copeland's Sports, with corporate offices in San Luis Obispo, Sports Superstore Online is able to benefit from the vendor relationships that Copeland's Sports has nurtured for more than 27 years. As a result, Sports Superstore Online is an authorized dealer for every brand of merchandise it offers on its Web site.

Sports Superstore Online has key relationships with the Internet's top destination locations, such as America Online-Shopping, AOL.com-Shopping, Compuserve-Shopping, Microsoft-The Plaza, Yahoo and a host of others.