34 Ways Online Sports Stores Can Boost Conversions

The global eCommerce sports goods market will continue to be defined by two major forces:

✅ The insistent need in people to get fitter & healthier

✅ The diminishing gap between athletic & casual wear

With the CAGR for the eCommerce sporting goods being 6.8% up to 2028, there’s no better time to partake in the activity boom that COVID introduced. 

In this post, we’ll take you through 34 conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores across the most high intent pages:

HOMEPAGE

CATEGORY PAGE

PRODUCT PAGE

CART PAGE

CHECKOUT

Conversion Rate Optimization Ideas For Online Sports Stores

HOMEPAGE

1. Use “trending searches” to drive product discovery

If someone decides to search, give them a gentle nudge to actually check out something.

eCommerce technical apparel brand Lululemon does this effectively—even before a shopper has begun typing:

If that’s not enough, when a shopper does key in a word or phrase, product suggestions come up along with relevant accompanying visuals:

Key Takeaway 💡

Use a short list—up to 6—trending search terms even before the shopper has begun typing—this is especially helpful for shoppers who’re still discovering your brand. 

You might like: 24 High-Converting Apparel Product Page Examples

2. Make it more compelling to visit your category pages

Though your category pages might showcase some great products, shoppers may still think it’s too much hassle to visit them individually. 

This is why it helps to create a theme that can club multiple categories for showcase on the homepage—create a theme based on:

✅ Exercise type

✅ Fitness concern

✅ Audience-specific discount event (let’s say you’re celebrating Labor Day)

✅ Color

✅ Season

✅ Gifting

✅ Flash sale

eCommerce sporting brand Under Armour features products across categories under a single theme as one of the conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores:

You could also follow the example of 2XU—they feature clickable category images on the homepage, but also show hotspots that will make the products jump out:

If this isn’t possible, you can even do what Asics does: ramp up your blogs to feature great content and link them to your category pages:

Key Takeaway 💡

Use compelling category page nudges on your homepage for shoppers to want to explore more—feature categories based on a theme, make them stand out in your content or even make your showcase images shoppable. 

3. Make your hero products stand out

Your hero products may just be 20% of your products, but they generate 80% of your revenue or even more. 

And this is why, if you’re running an eCommerce sports goods brand, you need to amp up their presence on the homepage. 

✅ Outdoor Voices highlights the “comeback” of their exercise dress, which is versatile and simple, in the first fold itself: 

✅ Athleta uses a short GIF and a great product description to bring out the UVP of the product:

Other ways to position your hero products?

✅ Call them “Must Haves”

✅ Feature a separate section on “Top Buys This Month”

Key Takeaway 💡

Ideally, use the first fold to draw attention to your hero product(s)—use powerful copy and images to create interest and anticipation. 

4. Offer choice competitors don’t

It’s easy to think your sports store USP will do your heavy lifting against competitors. 

Wrong. 

You’ve got to create experiences that no one else (or very few) is creating in the space—this includes: 

✅ Being able to create their own bundle on the homepage itself

✅ Getting a discount on creating a kit with products across categories

✅ Receiving access to exclusive product drops from time to time

Women’s performance wear brand Sweaty Betty, for example, allows shoppers to build a set and get a flat 30% discount:

Vulcan Sports, on the other hand, enables shoppers to design their own kit apart from featuring pre-decided kit packages:

Key Takeaway 💡

Make an interesting action possible on your homepage, something that gives shoppers the “power of choice”—be it taking a quiz funnel or creating a bundle of their choice. 

5. Actively promote your membership program

Interestingly, we’ve noticed many sports eCommerce stores retain membership program info for later on the product page or even the cart of checkout. Bad idea. 

Do instead what REI does with their numerous loyalty program nudges on the homepage:

What’s even better, REI also features a separate detailed page on their membership program:

Key Takeaway 💡

Offer interesting (and non-annoying) membership nudges to take shoppers towards longer & more fruitful engagement—ensure you highlight the biggest benefit involved. 

6. Drive sales through “shop the look” nudges

Product listings work because they’re effective—but in an overcrowded sports eCommerce space, you’ll have to think beyond listings on the homepage for conversions. 

One such way is to feature a “shop the look” nudge, which creates an awesome way for shoppers to visualize how different products look together—Alphalete does just this to spike their sporting store conversion rate:

Another great way to do this: feature the best UGC looks wall and make the images shoppable as one of the conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores. 

Key Takeaway 💡

A “shop the look” section right below your first fold helps shoppers visualize how your products come together in real life—instead of featuring multiple images, use one image with multiple models carrying off your products. 

7. Feature a separate “Sale” category in the main menu

We’ve noticed many eCommerce sports brands feature their sale discount information on notification bars. 

But the truth is, if you consider the average customer, they’re not usually noticing these fast-changing highlights or updates above the main navigation. 

The way out of this problem is to feature “SALE” as a separate category altogether in the navigation—just like activewear brand Bandier does:

Golf apparel brand Bad Birdie also uses this best practice:

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature “Sale” as a category in your main navigation—to draw attention to it, color code it differently than the other categories featured. 

8. Use geolocation to show more precise content

Activating geolocation capabilities in your sports goods eCommerce store has multiple advantages—from being able to serve up content in different languages to showing up recommendations based on weather or cultural preferences. 

Check out what Under Armour does as soon as a shopper lands on their site:

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature your geolocation prompt 2 to 3 seconds after a shopper arrives at your site—you can either show a pop-up or use a dialog box that is triggered of on the notification bar at the top of the page. 

CATEGORY PAGE

9. Create a separate category page for what’s “new”

While labeling your product images with “new” is just fine, your conversion game will change when you introduce a completely separate category page with that label. 

The idea is to make this page category-agnostic and feature everything that comes “new” into your store. 

This is exactly what Lululemon does with great effect:

Key Takeaway 💡

Ensure the “new” category page comes with effective filters like type of product, type of use, gender, look etc. to make navigation easier.

10. Make your filtering system top-notch

When you’re exploring conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores, focus on your category page filtering system. 

Using filtering that brings in many more nuances for a category type drives better conversions—that’s exactly what athletic wear brand Champion does to ensure a wider audience gets their needs met:

Key Takeaway 💡

Run your filtering system on one side of the page—preferably on the left—instead of the top to help shoppers make real-time changes to their preferences as they scroll. 

11. Leverage an “intermediary” category page

Since most eCommerce sports stores have a variety of products across categories, using an intermediary category page works well for conversions. 

It is basically a category landing page that offers a glance at all the categories, sub-categories and any associated links to blogs and guides. 

Intermediary category pages are especially helpful for converting shoppers at the top of the funnel. 

Here’s how eCommerce sporting goods brand Tracksmith features one—under this they cover their core franchise categories as well as those that are limited edition:

Key Takeaway 💡

Make your sub-category page feature all the different collections of products you feature through themes like core brands, brand collabs etc.

12. Highlight bestsellers with urgency labels

Many eCommerce sporting goods brands have been using “limited time” as a label for a while now. 

And maybe that’s why it’s important for you to take the urgency game a notch further—qualify the level of urgency to improve your conversions. 

Here are a few urgency labels that can work wonders:

✅ Never back again

✅ Almost gone

✅ Stocks super low

✅ Last chance

eCommerce athleisure brand Alo Yoga uses “almost gone” as an urgency label:

Key Takeaway 💡

To make the most of your category page urgency labels, scatter them across the page—too many in one row may not have the intended effect on the shopper. 

13. “Visualize” the whole category above the fold

In a time-strapped world, it’s difficult to anticipate if most shoppers will explore a category page fully. 

To improve engagement and increase conversions in the process, offer a visual glimpse of what kind of products the category features. 

That’s exactly what Bandier does—and this incites the curiosity of shoppers to keep scrolling & exploring:

Key Takeaway 💡

For the visual snapshot at the top of the category page, consider representing your bestsellers to create better recall. 

14. Feature a standalone “bundles” category page

While bundling can be a major marketing strategy for most sports goods stores in eCommerce, many make the mistake of hiding them away under larger categories. 

And then the inevitable happens: the onus falls on the shopper to notice them, consider them and then add to cart. 

A faster, more seamless way of doing this is to create a standalone bundles category page where you feature every possible bundle combination your store features—for lesser confusion, you can create separate themes within the page and club them together in a relevant way. 

Athleisure brand Carbon38 features all their bundles in a separate category page and even clearly labels them with “bundle”:

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature “bundles” as a separate category in your main navigation—for better impact, some stores go for “bundle & save” to trigger more clicks. 

15. Colorblock “clearance” items distinctly

Many eCommerce sports stores make the mistake of clubbing fast moving and slow moving products under “SALE”—this prevents shoppers from considering the former more urgently and they skip converting. 

What eCommerce brand Decathlon does is ideal: they create a color code differentiation for what’s a “deal” and what’s a “clearance” item:

Key Takeaway 💡

Make your clearance items stand out through a label that either screams for attention (like “LAST CALL”) or use a color that shoppers won’t be able to ignore. 

PRODUCT PAGE

16. Integrate first-time discount nudge with sticky cart 

Almost every sports eCommerce store has a sale going on—and this usually makes shoppers feel less convinced even after a lower price. 

After all, there’s so much choice and plenty always causes choice paralysis. 

The antidote is to give them a better deal—where they find a lower price to buy the product and see a good reason to sign up to your email list. 

Check out what high intensity sports brand Threo does—after the first scroll which contains the product details & primary CTA, they show up a sticky menu CTA plus a discount prompt to sign up:

Key Takeaway 💡

Combine your sticky cart and email sign-up prompt for more shoppers to join your email list & make a purchase! 

17. Use clever microcopy around the CTA

In the typical sports eCommerce store scenario, businesses fuss more about headlines than about microcopy. 

But it’s often what you feature in the latter, especially around the primary CTA on the product page that decides conversions. 

Here are a few ideas you could explore:

✅ A BNPL payment prompt

✅ A reduced price if the shopper signs up as a member

✅ A desirable urgency nudge like “Get free shipping if you order in the next 2 hours”

Women’s athleisure brand Bandier features BNPL info right under the primary CTA:

Key Takeaway 💡

Featuring compelling microcopy around the primary CTA gets more attention than when you feature it in other places on your product page. 

18. Feature review snapshots for quicker conversions 

Feature the snapshot within the first fold itself, right beneath the product name—make it possible to hover over the star ratings and a pop-up shows the snapshot. 

Make each component of it clickable and you’ve got a highly navigable review section. 

eCommerce men’s activewear brand Rhone shows this section right after the first fold as one of the conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores:

Key Takeaway 💡

Use a review snapshot for shoppers to see both the average score of your reviews as well as independently click on various star ratings. 

19. Use a search bar alongside review filters

The next step to making your review section highly accessible & navigable is to introduce a search bar. 

This makes it easy for shoppers to key in words or phrases that they’re looking at reviews around. 

This is what athleisure brand Alo Yoga does—to make it even more UX friendly, they have the most popular search terms appear as buttons right beneath:

Key Takeaway 💡

Use a search bar to make your review section more navigable—to increase the chances of being used, feature hint text that shoppers will relate to: “Type to know a fellow shopper’s opinion.”

20. Show the final price on the product page (& no checkout surprises please)

The usual practice for most sports DTC eCommerce brands is to put the product price and keep the shipping calculation for later. 

But what if you did it a different way? What if your total price could be calculated in one shot inclusive of the shipping cost?

That’s exactly what Champion does—they keep a “ship to” price calculator on the top bar and mention price under the product name only after the price is calculated:

Once you key in where the product is to be shipped, you can view the price like this:

Key Takeaway 💡

Make the shipping calculator highly visible—since the first fold is first choice for obvious reasons, keep it in the main navigation or right above the CTA. 

21. Specify what a bundle contains

You have to do this to create more trust on your bundle product pages—if shoppers don’t get “this bundle contains…” information, they may not convert after all. 

This is what you’ll need to include:

✅ List of items any variations of the set includes (if there are many, offer links that can pop out into dialog boxes)

✅ List of items the main product bundle contains

It’s a practice that golf goods store Robin Golf follows with aplomb—they not only list out what the product variations contain but also offer thumbnails of the items the present bundle contains, mentioning the number as well:

Key Takeaway 💡

Offer copy and visual cues to show what your bundled products contain—this drives quicker trust and faster decision-making in shoppers. 

22. Feature more targeted live chat FAQ 

To inspire more conversions, your sports store live chat button has to do more. 

While working on A/B testing ideas, we found the following to be effective:

✅ Focus on being exact about the time of attending to customers (for example, if it’s a holiday or outside of working hours, mention that)

✅ Feature instant post-purchase information (including tracking, managing orders & even refunds / cancellations etc.)

✅ Talk directly to the audience that’s most likely to buy from you or already form the mass of your loyalists

When we looked around, we discovered athletic wear brand Rhoback seems to put all the above into practice—here’s how:

Key Takeaway 💡

Make your FAQ section highly relatable your primary TG—ask questions based on common behavior, usual discount preferences etc. 

23. Show how many people have “wishlisted” or “referred”

Social proof isn’t just about how many people have already tried and tested your products—but also how many are looking to put faith in you while they decide. 

This is why how many have wishlisted a product becomes a conversion-driver on any product page—something that DTC sports brand Bandier understands well:

Other ways to convey the same message:

✅ 3 people have favourite’d the (insert name of product)

✅ 20 people have added this to their cart

✅ 15 people have referred this product to family & friends

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature the prompt either below the product name, below the CTA or bring it in as a label on your primary product image

24. Show off trust badges while they see the product

Many sports brands, like other eCommerce brands, make the mistake of trying to build customer trust at checkout. 

Since trust is a process, farther back in the journey on the product page, becomes more effective in driving conversions. 

eCommerce brand Gym Deity knows this well, applying it as one of the conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores:

Key Takeaway 💡

Show off your payment trust symbols in the same scroll as your CTA to trigger a quicker purchase decision. 

CART PAGE

25. Feature recommendations across price points

It’s not enough that you do segmentation only when it comes to your sports store emails or the location-based content you show up across the site. 

In your cart recommendations, you need to bring in variety in terms of price points to appeal to a larger audience and improve AOV in the process. 

Just like athletic wear & accessories brand No Bull Project does—in this instance though the main product is $58, the cart recommendations feature products that are as high as $159 and as low as $12:

Key Takeaway 💡

Use a combination of price points across your recommendations—to drive decision-making consider labeling one of them as “best paired with cart pick.”

26. Feature separate cart page to offer extra conversion nudges

Though many eCommerce DTC sports brands have moved to featuring cart drawers, to trigger conversions a separate cart page may still be best practice. 

It’s simple: with more space, you can show nudges that’ll be most relevant for the shopper both for the short and long term. 

That’s exactly what REI does—and reaps conversion rate dividends—notice how they just don’t talk about recommendations but also feature information about their loyalty program:

Key Takeaway 💡

Instead of a long scrolling mini cart, a separate cart page can feature your order summary, recommendations and other nudges like membership more effectively. 

You might like: Top 25 Cart Page Designs (Examples) For 2024

27. Use recommendation labels that drive action

It isn’t just price that’ll drive your shoppers to look at suggested cart recommendations a little harder. 

It’s also how you label them and convince your shoppers to consider them. 

Confused about what cart recommendation labels to use—here are some that we’ve seen get results:

✅ Limited edition

✅ Unisex

✅ Expert Pick

Golf wear brand Bad Birdie does just—to apply conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores, they highlight some of their “bestsellers”:

Key Takeaway 💡

Label some of your in-cart recommendations to inspire customers to add them to cart—ensure you don’t label all though, as this can create cognitive load. 

28. Help them get “free shipping” without effort

While running free audits, we’ve come across many eCommerce sports stores that show a free shipping threshold progress bar—but feature recommendations that won’t quickly help shoppers get free shipping. 

It’s a tiny UX detail that can either reduce or heighten cognitive load and you need to be careful. 

Athletic wear brand Rhoback ensures their recommendations are super complementary to the main product and the price points make free shipping instantly possible:

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature in-cart recommendations that’ll help get free shipping as soon as they add one—just make sure they’re  either complementary to the main product or the best add-ons possible. 

29. Use easy pay options within order summary

Since moving your shoppers through the checkout flow is your ultimate goal, your cart page needs to show how easy paying up can be. 

So, even if you’ve mentioned easy pay options on the product page, bring them back here like Outdoor Voices does—note that “afterpay” is clickable here to add to their conversion optimization ideas for online sporting goods stores:

Key Takeaway 💡

Don’t wait for the checkout to show your express pay options—one in your order summary can nudge people to proceed in the checkout flow. 

CHECKOUT

30. Offer a reminder of your most popular payment method

This is especially if your most popular payment method allows shoppers to pay in installments or in full, based on what their preference is. 

Gym Deity, for example, features ShopPay as one of their express checkout options—however, they bring back the nudge as a choice against credit card payment later in the page: 

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature the popular pay nudge along with a more conventional mode of payment to drive shopper choice. 

You might like: One Click Checkout: 5 Popular Vendors for eCommerce Brands (+ Examples)

31. Highlight the BNPL option clearly

It’s awesome you have multiple express checkout options—but you have to consider that 13% still abandon their cart thinking they wish they had more payment methods. 

One way out of this is to feature your BNPL payment method clearly—just like sportswear brand TALA does:

Key Takeaway 💡

Feature your BNPL nudge as early on in the checkout page as possible—you can always bring it back later in the payment flow section.

32. Make the marketing material opt-in super prominent

We all know how some brands sneakily keep the marketing material radio button auto-checked. 

Terrible  conversion optimization idea for online sporting goods stores, if you ask us. 

Shoppers are supe diligent by this stage and if they’re buying from your sports brand especially for the first time, this isn’t something they’d appreciate. 

So do what Outdoor Voices does on their checkout page: 

Key Takeaway 💡

Use a different font to write this microcopy so that it does not get lost in other details—alternatively use a different color from the rest of form field text. 

33. Offer a package protection nudge

By the time it comes to the checkout page, shoppers really want brands to state non-verbally that they care. 

This is where they’re most alert about online fraud and shipping damages—so offering a package protection nudge for your more fragile sporting goods may be a great idea. 

Caveat: Keep the microcopy highlighted and don’t keep the option auto-checked—this can quickly become an irritant. 

Here’s an example from Oru Kayak:

Key Takeaway 💡

Don’t auto-check your package protection nudge as this increases the total amount—if a shopper catches this, they might bounce off. 

34. Automatically apply freebies

On the checkout page, the last thing you want is customers looking for a way to apply discounts or cashback possibilities. 

Do it for them, highlight it and you’ll increase the possibility of getting better conversions on your eCommerce sports store. 

eCommerce brand Crossnet auto-applies freebies to reduce friction:

Key Takeaway 💡

Ensure you have some microcopy about the freebie you add, whether it’s a cashback or a gift—this way shoppers won’t feel it’s unrelated to their main purchase. 

5 Top Sports eCommerce Trends in 2024

• Only about a third of the total number of sporting goods brands have widened margins as well as increased revenues since 2017—this trend will continue this year
• Only about 12, 000 eCommerce sporting goods store are able to sell 1000 to 10000 products per month
• The US accounts for maximum app spend in the sporting goods category—it stands at 58.37% of the total expenditure, amounting to $66.87 million
• Topics like sustainability will continue to influence innovation in the eCommerce sports goods market
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the No. 1 platform in terms of sports eCommerce sales revenue generation—standing at $116 trillion

5 Customer Behaviors Every Sports eCommerce Store Needs to Optimize For

• Shifting away from organized sports to more accessible & social sport forms
• Older generations seem to have both time & money to spend on more fitness—so eCommerce stores need to gear up for age-inclusive optimization strategies like accessibility
• Brand loyalty is decreasing as a result of more options, with more pricing benefits cropping up
• More shoppers are preferring to shop across multi-brand environments
• More shoppers are looking for sports eCommerce brands that don’t just sell but also guide them through activities, trails, performance etc. 

Recommended reading:

24 Ways Online Vape Stores Can Boost Conversions

14 Ways Online Jewelry Stores Can Boost Conversions

20 Reasons Why Your Online Furniture Store Has Low Conversions (+ ways to fix)

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