How Can Decathlon'S Dream Of "500 Shopping Malls" In China Get Into Reality?

Unlike the famous brands such as ADI and Nike, Decathlon has never publicize such a marketing budget by sponsoring and employing celebrity endorsements.

But in the first season of reality TV show Daddy where, Decathlon's products have been exposed frequently. It is understood that these hats, ski clothes and other products are purchased by celebrities themselves, not sponsored by Decathlon.

Founded in 1976, Decathlon first entered China in the form of a manufacturer in 1994 and opened its first shopping mall in Shanghai in 2003.

With the coming of China's sports industry boom, Decathlon has gradually accelerated its pace of expansion in China.

In 2014, the number of shoes and donkeys in China was 32, and revenue grew by 46%.

At present, there are 143 shopping malls in 61 cities in China.

The goal of the next five years is to have 500 real shopping malls in 120 cities in China, and sales in China account for 1/4 of the total sales of the group.

The direction of opening shop is also gradually expanding from the first tier cities to the two or three tier cities.

At the same time, in order to adapt to the rapid development, Decathlon is going to expand the logistics and storage area of China to two times as high as 386000 times at the end of 2016. 386000, add Shenyang and Wuhan logistics centers on the basis of the existing three logistics centers in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong. In 2016, it is expected to increase 40% of the volume of distribution in China's shopping malls, and increase the volume of overseas shopping malls by 10%.

In addition, Decathlon decided to move its badminton development team Artengo of badminton brand to China in two years ago, and hired badminton world champion, Cheng Cheng as product manager.

Turning to Decathlon's decision to make this decision, Ge Cheng explained the potential of China's badminton market with some data: China is the world's largest badminton market, with an annual sales volume of 5 billion yuan, accounting for 35% of the world's market share, and increasing by 10-15% share each year.

The sales of badminton products of Decathlon Shenzhen Shahe store is the largest in the world, which equals Decathlon's total sales of badminton products in all Russia.

Ge Cheng believes that Decathlon's greatest strength is its own retail channel, and the quality of its products can be quickly reflected in sales.

Before entering the Chinese market, Decathlon in France, Spain and other European markets all used the mode of buying land or building standard shops in the suburbs with convenient pportation and low land price.

Standard shops are usually single single family buildings, with an indoor area of 4000 square meters. They are provided with indoor and outdoor sports venues and free outdoor flat parking spaces freely available for public use.

However, the land resources in China's first and second tier cities are scarce and the land prices are high. It is more and more difficult to find single plot shopping malls with a plot area of 10000-30000 square meters and suitable for opening 4000-12000 square meters of business area.

Moreover, compared with the suburbs, people prefer to spend the weekend holidays in the indoor shopping malls, which are concentrated in the brand shops, eating, drinking and playing together.

Therefore, in order to adapt to the Chinese market, Decathlon pioneered in China.

(sMall is a combination of small and shoppingmall), that is, the shopping center concept store.

The average area of sMall concept store is around 1500 square meters.

Most sMall concept shops and all standard stores will sign the longest period of contract with the owners when signing the lease contract, and are committed to common development with the city.

At present, Decathlon accounts for about 30% of all self built projects, including stores and logistics centers.

The two direct operation modes of land purchase, self construction and long-term lease cooperation can achieve good long-term, medium and short term comprehensive cooperation.

In addition to the sMall concept store, Decathlon also pioneered a shopping mall model with local stadiums in China and promoted it to the world.

The location of shops is located near the original local public sports venues and public sports facilities to facilitate more ordinary citizens to participate in sports.

For example, Decathlon Wuxi Binhu store opened to Wuxi new sports center, Tianjin TEDA store opened to the gate of Tianjin TEDA football stadium.

This is also a major innovation for Decathlon to uphold the principles of mass sports.

It has 21 independent brands, covering nearly 80 sports, and nearly 3000 new products come out every year. More than 90% of the products are private brand, and the renewal rate of products is about 10%.

Apart from headquarters in France, China is Decathlon's first market with a complete industrial chain layout.

From product research and development, design, production, brand, logistics to the last retail link are in their own hands.

The layout of the whole industry chain can save the cost of many middlemen and save the cost in the final retail price.

Decathlon's R & D center has 50 researchers and more than 500 engineers from different countries. It helps people to interact with their products through studying the reactions of human body during movement.

Develop sports products that can bring better experience.

In 2014, nearly 200 projects were developed, including 106 newly registered patents.

Different brand R & D centers will be placed in the hottest part of the sport, for example, the badminton product R & D team is placed in China, and the product development center for mountain sports and skiing sports is set up at the foot of Blanc peak hill.

Starting from the opening of Shanghai flower shop in China, Decathlon has been insisting on the display of all kinds of sports products from outdoor sports, running to equestrian and fishing, and a small number of sports fans will not return empty handed.

The results of the annual customer satisfaction survey show that the convergence of many sports products is exactly what Decathlon likes most, even before low prices and high cost performance.

Besides dangerous sports such as archery, for safety consideration, employees are required to accompany the trial. More than 95% of the products are free to touch and experience.

At the same time, the business area of 15% of every shopping mall of Decathlon is contributed to the experience area and the trial area. Most shopping malls will build their own stadium outside the stadium, and open the experience to the public free of charge.

For children, Decathlon may be more like a playground.