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Academy Sports and Outdoors is pushing the boundaries of its omnichannel strategy, moving beyond the traditional integration of its website, mobile app, and physical stores to incorporate cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. This evolution includes leveraging large-language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, signaling a significant shift in how the retailer approaches customer engagement and data management in the digital age. This strategic integration, according to Chief Information Officer Sumit Anand, hinges on the meticulous connection and maturation of its product data, starting with comprehensive product catalogs.
"It all boils down to how we mature our product feeds for one of them [the channels], and that can be scaled across the others," Anand explained in an interview with Digital Commerce 360. "So from an ecosystem perspective, the world doesn’t change much. From a scale perspective, it’s just a matter of getting it right and continuing to mature it because the refinement in this is going to be key." This emphasis on data maturity is particularly crucial for a retailer managing thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of stock-keeping units (SKUs). Academy Sports approaches this challenge by enhancing product attributes and, by extension, its data feeds, in a systematic manner, department by department. "There’s a whole method that we follow. Otherwise, this could be a never-ending thing," Anand added, highlighting the structured approach required to manage such a vast product inventory.
Academy Sports and Outdoors, currently ranked 142nd in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 2000 Database—which ranks North America’s largest online retailers by annual e-commerce sales—is actively embedding AI into its core operational strategies. This move is not merely about adopting new technology; it’s about creating a more seamless and intelligent customer journey across all touchpoints. The retailer’s ambition extends to not only enhancing internal operations but also to optimizing its presence on external marketplaces, including DoorDash, where it has had a presence for approximately 18 months.
The foundation of Academy Sports’ advanced omnichannel approach lies in robust data management, specifically its product feeds. These feeds serve as the crucial bridge connecting its extensive product catalog to its website, mobile application, LLM integrations, and third-party marketplaces. The success of this interconnected ecosystem, Anand stressed, begins with ensuring impeccable product findability across all platforms. This involves a deep dive into data analytics, understanding consumer cart behavior, optimizing attribution models, refining product search functionality, and perfecting product presentment. For instance, landing pages must not only possess the essential product attributes but also feature compelling and "inviting" visual elements to capture consumer attention.
A significant area of innovation for Academy Sports is the transition from static product search to what Anand describes as "agentic search." This paradigm shift involves employing agentic AI tools that enable consumers to interact with search engines using natural language, engaging in conversational queries to discover products. This move is intended to mimic human-like interactions, making the search process more intuitive and efficient for shoppers.
To facilitate this enhanced discoverability, Academy Sports is strategically employing AI for content enrichment. This process involves augmenting product data with rich metadata, making it easier for various AI tools to identify and effectively display products to consumers. Anand illustrated this with an example: a product might initially have a dozen attributes. Through automated scraping services, an additional five attributes can be integrated. Subsequently, an AI tool actively scans the web to identify further attributes that could enhance searchability and findability, compiling a list of potential additions. This AI-generated list is then meticulously reviewed by Academy Sports’ human merchandising team, who determine the most relevant attributes for their website, taking into account the preferences and behaviors of their specific customer base. This blend of AI-driven data acquisition and human curation ensures that product information is both comprehensive and strategically aligned with business objectives.
Modernizing Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Academy Sports is also at the forefront of modernizing its approach to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). In collaboration with Google, the retailer is participating in several pilot programs aimed at refining its product feeds to achieve higher rankings and better discoverability within AI-driven search environments. This initiative is particularly significant as it moves beyond traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to address the evolving landscape of how LLMs index and present online content.
GEO, much like SEO, focuses on improving a brand’s visibility in search results. However, it specifically targets the way LLMs interpret and rank content, utilizing a sophisticated blend of text- and image-based attributes. Anand expressed optimism about the potential impact of these Google partnerships: "And we really believe once we launch these pilots with Google, it really is going to set our product feeds on a maturity set that allows us to modernize our GEO efforts." The underlying principle is that superior product attributes directly translate into enhanced searchability and findability, which, in turn, drives higher conversion rates. "Better attributes lead to better searchability or findability, [which] leads to higher conversion," Anand stated. "We’re starting with the basics."
Enabling Seamless Omnichannel Fulfillment
The ultimate objectives for Academy Sports in this comprehensive digital transformation are multifaceted: reducing cart abandonment rates, increasing the number of units sold per transaction, boosting average order value (AOV), and fostering greater customer loyalty and "stickiness" to its digital platforms. Each of these goals is intrinsically linked to the retailer’s ability to effectively manage its product catalog and facilitate seamless discovery and purchase across all channels.
Beyond discovery and purchase, the crucial aspect of order fulfillment is meticulously managed to ensure a cohesive customer experience. Academy Sports’ product feeds are updated frequently to accurately reflect product availability and fulfillment status across its various sales channels. The retailer’s sophisticated order management system plays a vital role in this process, decrementing inventory in real-time as products are delivered or paid for, depending on the specific settings of each channel.
From an enterprise-wide perspective, Academy Sports has made substantial investments in its merchandising and supply chain platforms to enable this robust omnichannel fulfillment. These investments are designed to provide a unified view of inventory and orders, regardless of where the transaction originated. Furthermore, the company is actively exploring platforms that can ingest and analyze a large volume of contextual data to provide deeper insights into customer behavior and operational efficiency.
On the merchandising front, AI applications are being leveraged for predictive demand forecasting, allowing the retailer to anticipate customer needs and optimize stock levels. In its supply chain operations, Academy Sports relies on its established order management system and the expertise of Manhattan Associates. The company also actively utilizes a "buy online, pick up in store" (BOPIS) model and fulfillment directly from its physical stores, integrating its brick-and-mortar footprint into its e-commerce strategy.
Anand articulated the dynamic nature of the current retail landscape: "You’ve got brick and mortars, you’ve got e-com, but in the agentic world that we’re living in, this space is changing, I would say, on a weekly basis." This constant flux necessitates a continuous drive for innovation. "So it’s a constant: How do we reinvent the way we want to show up to our customers, make it easy for them, enable an experience that really, really takes any friction out of the whole experience for them?" This customer-centric philosophy underpins Academy Sports’ ambitious strategy to integrate AI and redefine the omnichannel experience.
The strategic integration of advanced AI platforms into its omnichannel strategy represents a forward-thinking approach by Academy Sports and Outdoors. By focusing on data maturity, agentic search, content enrichment, and generative engine optimization, the retailer is positioning itself to offer a more personalized, efficient, and friction-free shopping experience. As the retail landscape continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, Academy Sports’ commitment to embracing emerging technologies signals its dedication to staying competitive and meeting the increasingly sophisticated demands of modern consumers. The ongoing investments in data infrastructure, AI capabilities, and supply chain optimization are critical components of this strategy, aiming to not only enhance customer satisfaction but also to drive sustainable business growth in the years to come.
