How Academy Sports + Outdoors transformed the digital shelf through Bazaarvoice SMS and AI

Transforming the digital shelf through SMS and AI

Academy Sports + Outdoors, a leader in the sporting goods sector, recently underwent a massive digital evolution to align with modern shopper behaviors. To modernize their point-of-sale (POS) experience, the brand made a strategic pivot to mobile-first checkouts, replacing traditional in-store email collection with SMS. While this successfully modernized the customer journey, the transition resulted in a 40% drop in native review volume. This “content desert” affected the discoverability of high-margin private-label products, which rely on fresh user-generated content (UGC) to compete with national brands.

Co-engineering a best-in-class feedback loop

To bridge this trust gap without compromising their mobile-centric vision, Academy entered a deep strategic collaboration with Bazaarvoice. The mission was to transform a technical bottleneck into a high-octane growth engine through three critical initiatives:

• Hosted SMS capability: Academy built a custom-hosted SMS collection channel to meet customers exactly where they are most active, on their mobile devices.
• Catalog health overhaul: The teams performed an intensive audit to re-align catalog data, achieving a 94% catalog health score. This ensured that automated review requests were perfectly matched to the correct products.
• AI-powered content optimization: They launched a “private label” pilot focused on least-reviewed items. By leveraging AI tools like Review Summaries and Content Coach, Academy turned raw feedback into highly descriptive, “shoppable” content that drives purchase confidence.

Setting a new industry benchmark for engagement

The results of this partnership did more than just recover lost volume; they established a superior omnichannel recruitment model that redefined industry standards:

• Growth in review volumes: Total review volume skyrocketed, with SMS accounting for 76% of all native reviews, effectively becoming the brand’s primary collection engine.
• Massive coverage expansion: Product review coverage across the digital shelf increased by 40%, ensuring a larger portion of the portfolio had authentic shopper social proof.
• Private-label pilot success: Prioritizing internal brands led to a 15% lift in coverage and a massive 61% surge in review volume in just five months.
• Stable community trust: Despite a 26% increase in SMS volume, opt-out rates remained at a negligible 1.2%. This confirms that shoppers find this Bazaarvoice-enabled, mobile-first channel helpful rather than intrusive.