E-commerce accounts for 11% of sales for the sporting goods retailer, compared with 9% during the first quarter last year.

(Staff and Bloomberg)—Strong e-commerce growth allowed Dick’s Sporting Goods, No. 54 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000, to grow total revenue by 4.6% year over year despite a 0.9% decline in comparable same-store sales.

Online sales reached 11% of total sales, or roughly a 24% increase in e-commerce sales. That comes to about $210.1 million in e-commerce sales for the first quarter ending May 5, compared with 9% of total sales or about $164.3 million during the first quarter last year.

Total revenue for the quarter beat expectations at $1.91 billion, despite the retailer’s move to end sales of assault-style rifles in February after a shooting at a Florida high school. CEO Ed Stack has since met with elected officials, spoken publicly about the need to increase regulations and hired a lobbying firm to push Congress.

How much those decisions helped or hurt the retailer remains to be seen. Dick’s was struggling to grow revenue before it took these measures, and Stack warned in March that the company would receive some “blowback” that would hurt sales. But the chain’s main customers also are parents of school-age children, so the brand could have received a boost of goodwill in some parts of the country.

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Dick’s also raised its earning forecast for the year to as much as $3.12 a share, up from $3, because of fewer promotions and more revenue coming from its more profitable private-label brands.

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