Centralized Product Data Fuels Growth for Sports Retailers
The sporting goods industry grew an impressive 7% annually between 2021 and 2024, but forecasts are softening to 6% through 2029. At the same time, inflation, evolving consumer behaviour, new regulations, and geopolitical uncertainty are forcing merchants to do more with less. For retailers selling apparel, optics, firearms, or outdoor gear, the mission is clear: scale quickly across channels while keeping complex product catalogs compliant and consistent. Many are evolving from local storefronts to multi-location retail, eCommerce, and marketplace sales—but fragmented data, manual workflows, and inconsistent product information are getting in the way. Time and time again, we’ve seen these bottlenecks slow launches, complicate compliance, and make it harder to deliver the seamless experiences customers expect.
In this article, we’ll look at the biggest barriers for retailers planning to scale, and how centralizing product data and automating compliance can help drive growth. We’ll also share how ANS Xtreme Performance used JasperX to simplify its operations and set a strong foundation for business expansion.
The Scaling Challenge: Fragmented Data, Manual Compliance, and Slow Product Launches
As sporting goods merchants expand online and across multiple retail channels, the complexity of managing product information starts to multiply fast. What works for a single storefront or a handful of SKUs quickly falls apart when you’re juggling thousands of products across eCommerce sites, marketplaces, and POS systems.
Fragmented Product Data Slows Everything Down
Many retailers are held together by a patchwork of tools—POS systems, ERPs, spreadsheets, and eCommerce platforms—that don’t talk to each other. Product information ends up scattered across different places, making it hard to keep anything accurate or aligned. A single product update can mean logging into three, four, or five different systems, manually re-entering the same data, and hoping nothing slips through the cracks.
Manual Updates Drain Resources
When every price change, seasonal drop, or new SKU launch requires manual updates across multiple platforms, operations teams get stuck on a hamster wheel of duplication. Launch timelines stretch, teams spend hours on repetitive work, and new opportunities get left on the table simply because there aren’t enough hands (or hours) to keep up.
Compliance Complexity Compounds the Problem
of friction. Different regions and platforms demand different metadata, documentation, and product attributes. Managing that manually is slow and error-prone, and even small mistakes can mean delays, rejections, or worse—compliance penalties.
Omnichannel Growth Demands Consistency
As retailers grow from local shops into multi-channel operations, customers expect a seamless experience everywhere. Mismatched images, incomplete specs, or inconsistent pricing across sites frustrate shoppers, driving up return rates and chipping away at trust. And trying to keep all those touchpoints aligned manually? That simply doesn’t scale.
The Opportunity: Centralize, Automate, and Scale
To break free from this type of operational gridlock, leading sporting goods merchants are reimagining how they manage product data. Instead of patching together fragmented systems and manual workarounds, they’re turning to centralized platforms and automated workflows that help them move faster, stay compliant, and scale with confidence.
One Source of Truth for Product Data
When product information lives in one place, everything gets easier. By centralizing data in a single platform, teams gain a reliable foundation for every downstream channel. Rather than logging into multiple systems to make the same change over and over, merchants can update product data once and distribute it everywhere—eCommerce sites, marketplaces, POS systems, and brick-and-mortar locations. That translates to consistent, accurate listings, fewer errors, and teams freed up to focus on strategic growth instead of repetitive admin work.
Automated Compliance Workflows
By automating metadata management and documentation workflows, merchants can instantly adapt product information to meet the specific regulatory and platform standards of each channel. For example, a retailer selling rifle scopes might need classification data and legal disclaimers for certain U.S. states or marketplace listings, while Canadian listings require different identifiers altogether. Automated workflows apply the right attributes and documentation for every region and platform, removing the risk of human error and accelerating go-to-market.
Faster Time-to-Market Across Channels
Once data is centralized and compliance is automated, launching new products is no longer a drawn-out process. Merchants can update once and publish everywhere in near real time, shrinking the gap between product availability and go-live dates across channels. That speed is a competitive advantage, especially in seasonal cycles where promotions and inventory turnover depend on tight launch windows.
A Future-Proof Foundation for Growth
Building a centralized and automated product data infrastructure isn’t just about solving today’s inefficiencies, but about setting the stage for omnichannel expansion. Whether retailers are adding new marketplaces, expanding internationally, or introducing new product lines, this foundation allows them to scale without adding operational overhead.
Real-World Example: ANS Xtreme Performance Scales Faster With Jasper
Sometimes the best way to understand the impact of centralized product data is to see it in action. ANS Xtreme Performance, the world’s largest paintball retailer, faced many of the same challenges as other fast-growing sporting goods merchants: fragmented product data, time-consuming manual updates, and the need to keep pace with rapid expansion across channels.
The Challenge
Before Jasper, ANS was replicating product information manually across multiple eCommerce sites—a process that was not only repetitive but also slow and error-prone. Each update required logging into several platforms, making edits individually, and ensuring accuracy across the board. For a company managing thousands of SKUs across multiple categories, this was a major operational bottleneck.
Why ANS Chose Jasper
ANS selected Jasper because the platform aligned seamlessly with the company’s existing tech stack. The integrations were already built, making adoption straightforward. Just as importantly, Jasper’s pricing model allowed ANS to pay only for the PIM capabilities it needed, rather than a bundled set of features it wouldn’t use.
The Results
After implementing Jasper, ANS gained the ability to manage product data from a single source of truth and publish updates across all channels simultaneously.
- Time savings: A workflow that previously took a full workday—or even multiple days—now takes just 30–45 minutes.
- Productivity boost: Instead of replicating data, team members can now focus on creating new listings and improving product content.
- Scalable foundation: ANS’ centralized catalog now supports both its eCommerce presence and expanding retail showroom, enabling a true omnichannel experience.
As Derek Dunbar, Director of Operations at ANS, put it:
“The same workflow that we’re able to do in Jasper within 30 to 45 minutes, could have taken a full workday or multiple workdays to accomplish if we had to do those changes manually on the website platform. It really has given us an opportunity to centralize and own our product data.”
Watch the full ANS Xtreme Performance case study >
Build the Foundation for Scalable Growth
For sporting goods merchants, scaling means building the infrastructure to move faster, stay compliant, and maintain consistency as the business grows. Fragmented systems and manual workarounds can only take you so far. The retailers that win in this next phase will be the ones who treat their product data operations as a strategic growth driver.
JasperX gives merchants the tools to centralize product information, automate compliance, and accelerate omnichannel expansion so they can stay focused on growth.
Want to learn more?
