Eastern Mountain Sports

- Star Review

Last Updated: 3/18/2009

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Eastern Mountain Sports Star Rating

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Sporting goods retailers can provide a plethora of supplies and products to the industry’s customers. In most cases, however, it’s not just about product line or price, but about other things as well, such as unique features and a knowledge-packed customer service center. We set out on a quest to find the best all-around sporting goods retailer on the Internet, and happened to come across Eastern Mountain Sports' EMS.com website. How did they stand up to the Star Reviews challenge? Here's what you need to know...

What's New?

Extreme outlet deals.
Gift cards available.
Online shopping, in-store pickup.

Our Favorite Feature:

We really liked the site's in-store pickup option. If you live near an Easter Mountain Sports brick-and-mortar store you can choose to pick your order up in person rather than waiting and paying for delivery. For instant-gratification lovers who'd like to save money on shipping costs, this is a huge plus.

The EMS.com Experience:

Eastern Mountain Sports is a one-stop-shop for everything and anything relating to sporting goods. The site offers a variety of products pertaining to just about any type of sport you can think of. They also strive to beat out the competition by offering value-added services such as schooling and travel.

While browsing the EMS.com website we noticed they maintain a full inventory of just about everything we could want. And they’ve managed to cram that wealth of products into their homepage in a tasteful and uncluttered manner. The site is definitely easy to navigate.

In addition to the shopping section of the site, Eastern Mountain Sports offers a helpful education section as well. This part of the site allows EMS.com customers to take classes pertaining to various sports such as kayaking, climbing and skiing. These classes provide for a very well-rounded site. Customers can not only purchase skiing equipment, but they can learn how to use it too!

We also enjoyed the travel section of EMS.com. The company provides their customers with the ability to reserve trips via their miniature travel agency. Most of the trips are all-inclusive (with the exception of airfare) and are group-based (i.e. a group hike or kayaking event). While we did find the travel prices a bit on the high end, it's definitely a unique addition to the site.

EMS.com’s Features:

Travel agency available for group all-inclusive trips.
EMS school provides education on how to participate in certain sporting activities.
Quick-pickup gives customers the ability to purchase a product online and pick up in the nearest store location.
Several convenient locations spanned out across the north-eastern United States.
Easy access to my account; track orders and more with a free account.

EMS.com's Pricing:

	BassPro.com	Dicks Sporting Goods	EMS.com	Modell's	REI.com	SportsAuthority.com
Garmin GPSMAP 60CSX	$399.99	$359.99	$399.99	$429.99	$399.95	$429.99
Coleman InstaStart Tabletop Grill	$99.99	$89.99	N/A	$89.99	$64.95	$89.99

EMS.com’s Customer Service:

EMS.com’s customer service was extremely helpful when we had questions. While the Contact Us page was a bit cluttered, we did manage to find an e-mail address and toll free telephone number that answers questions 7 days a week. The agent we spoke with via the toll-free number helped us out with minimal hold time and provided in-depth answers to each of our questions. Email support was just as impressive, providing us with a response the same business day. Overall we have to say that EMS.com is on the ball when it comes to attending a customer's needs.

Upside:

Well-rounded site with multiple services, wide selection, easy to navigate.

Downside:

Pricing a bit high.

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