How can site innovation push your website past its competitors and increase conversions? Using both Sports Direct and JD Sports sites, we compare the differences and successes of an innovative site vs an old fashioned site.

1. Convert
Website Wars:
Sports Edition

2. THE FINAL
SPRINT
This year the ecommerce world is taking
no survivors, as brands which fail to
develop their digital presence fall into
bankruptcy and eventual closure.
But how exactly does digital performance
affect your brands success?

3. Our single most important store
in the world is our dot-com
store, there is no comparison
Kasper Rorsted, chief executive officer of
adidas AG

4. Case Study
Sports Direct
vs JD Sports

5. 2017
Revenue: £3.25B
Growth: +9.21%
2018
Revenue: £3.36B
Growth: -8.22%
2019 (F1)
Revenue: 3.70B
Growth: +10%
Sports Direct
Revenue and growth
over a three year
period

6. 2017
Revenue: £2.38B
Growth: +31%
2018
Revenue: £3.16B
Growth: +33%
2019 (F1)
Revenue: £4.71B
Growth: +49%
JD Sports
Revenue and growth
over a three year
period

7. Why is Sports Direct
experiencing a lack
of growth compared
to JD?

8. Check out the full ebook here
Website wars 2018
Last year, we conducted an in-depth analysis
of many top UK retailers. Examining both
sites for defects which would prevent
purchases (critical) or provide an annoyance
(conversion).
Comparing the two brands together, Sports
Direct had a high amount of critical defects
whereas JD was average.

9. News Flash
Sports Direct shares dropped by 28% on the
29th July. This marks the greatest loss since
2007.
Consequently, Sports Direct’s CFO Jon
Kempster has stepped down.
Source

10. Digging Deeper:
Company Profiles

11. Source
Lead by Mike Ashley &
owns Lonsdale and
Umbro
YouGov’s BrandIndex
places Sports Direct within
the bottom 5 retailers for
quality, reputation and
impression
Previously beat competitors such
as Allsports and JJB through
discounted products

12. Owned by Pentland Group,
who also own Speedo,
Lacoste and Size?
Rose to fame through
‘athleisure’, celebrity
endorsement and exclusive
products
Source
Is the UK’s 30th most
popular fashion & clothing
brand, and the 13th most
famous

13. Digging Deeper:
Site Analysis

14. • Same product shown
• Clear model/presentation difference
• Price difference
• Branded colour pallet difference
• Both sites have a sale highlighted
Sports Direct’s site
appears dated and
too simplistic
User Opinion

15. UX analysis:
JD Sports

16. UX Study
3 Different
ways to
choose or find
the correct
sizing for you

17. Varying viewing options, including
zoom, close up and a video

18. Reinforced quality through Google
customer reviews

19. Section focusing on delivery & payment options including
integrated Klarna and discount – close to the add to basket button

20. Options to save or share externally

21. UX analysis:
Sports Direct

22. Lacks additional details such as materials,
payment or delivery options

23. Add to wish list clarifies additional action will be needed.
Rewording would result in a higher conversion rate

24. Limited viewing options and lack of real world
appearance (e.g on a model)

25. Sale highlighted through graphics and colour
(good for accessibility)

26. TheWinner JD Sports clearly has a higher
UX through natural or
intuitive inclusions of added
functionalities.
Including: alternative
payment options, reviews,
additional viewings, various
size guides and delivery
options, with a continuous
timer to emphasise urgency.

27. The Loser
Sports Direct lacks many
functionalities to encourage users to
convert or emphasises quality on their
site.
Including alternative payment and
delivery options increases customer
loyalty and personalisation factors.

28. Overall improvements should
include: inclusion of accessibility
for colour blindness. Specifically
the add to basket CTA, which
would be more accessible if it had
a boarder around it
Next
Steps

29. Quick Review
1
2
3
4
Market/industry examination and
competitor selection for comparison
Comparison of yearly revenue and growth,
showing the ‘champion’ company
Suggested improvements and
summary
In-depth analysis of website through
UX methods and web testing tools
An extensive look into how to site improvement can be costly
and time consuming.

30. Convert
Solution

31. Convert
Convert is the complete solution
to support your website, gaining
the competitive advantage and
consistently exceeding growth
targets.
Used by Gymshark, Quality
Cottages and Holland and Barrett,
Convert combines always-on
features, unique revenue analytics
and surgical testing to help your
website rise above the
competition and drive conversion
rates.
Digital Revenue Calculator: Using deep analytics and AI to
identify optimisation targets. We find champion performers
and under-performers across multiple devices and browsers,
identifying your potential revenue uplift through comparative
methods.
Conversion Benchmarking, Deep Device & Browser Analytics
& Quantified Revenue Uplift

32. Optimisation Testing: We use a combination of functional,
usability and performance tests to isolate and evidence
the issues responsible for the under-performance. Once
fixed, conversion rates immediately increase, and we
progress onto the next optimisation candidate.
Functional, Usability & Performance Testing
Live Monitoring: We identify conversion-impacting issues
before your visitors do. Using up to 10 professional testers
we run key journeys covering your top devices. Each issue is
reported, validated and available to your technical team in
real time through our secure client portal.
Live Site Testing, Exploratory Testing & Daily Coverage of
Critical Journeys

33. Creating a website which has fulfiled your criteria
is only half the battle. You also need to cater to
your audience and take into account how every
part of the customer journey can be more intuitive
and natural.
Using web testing tools, such as Digivante’s
Convert solution will improve your digital
performance, and in turn change browsers into
buyers.
The Final
Stage