Decathlon Bet On Deep Localization To Accelerate The Layout Of The Whole Industry Chain

The localization market is unprecedented, and the Chinese market is playing an important role in Decathlon.

Decathlon, from France, has been expanding its market in China in the past ten years. It has not only created a new format of Decathlon sMall to many countries, but also built a complete chain of production, such as design, R & D, production and logistics, which is only available in the French market.

Decathlon expects that global sales of 1/4 will probably come from China in five years.

Innovative store form

Yan Bao building is a 5A grade office building in Shijingshan District. The Decathlon store on the ground floor will open at the end of the year.

It is not common for Decathlon to open a shop under the office, "Beijing has been a blank market in the west, and has opened the shop with its teeth."

This is the third type of shop that Decathlon has innovating in China after the shopping mall mode of Decathlon sMall and its local stadiums.

Before entering the Chinese market, Decathlon in France, Spain and other European markets to choose convenient pportation, low price suburban land purchase or rental self built standard shops, standard shops are generally single single family buildings, indoor area of 4000 square meters, equipped with free open indoor outdoor pport field and free outdoor parking spaces.

Zhang Yueceng, President of Decathlon Greater China, introduced the conditions of opening Decathlon stores in China: "no first tier cities do not enter, if entering a commercial body, it is not a single layer, but not a 4000 square meter square shape. The height requirement is 5 meters, the independent entry and exit, the facade and the buffer zone."

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However, the location of China's second tier cities to meet the above requirements is becoming more and more difficult and expensive.

China's business is more concentrated in the urban area than in Europe, and there are a large number of people living and working in the city center.

Last year, Decathlon developed a new Decathlon sMall, which is suitable for shopping centers in China. The area is more than 1500 square meters.

Provide 8000 square meters of door shop product selection.

In addition to the sMall concept store, Decathlon has opened a shopping mall model combining with local stadiums in China, and has been promoted to the world. Shops are located at the local public sports venues and public sports facilities to facilitate the movement of citizens.

Zhang Yue rethinks, "after entering China in 2003, Decathlon used the European market to open shop mode, until 2012, only 80 out of ten years.

Since last year, we have found that we need to adapt ourselves to the local market and learn local culture and consumer habits.

Last year, Decathlon opened 32 new stores in China. Decathlon said that at present, Decathlon has opened 14 Decathlon sMall in Shanghai, Hefei, Yantai, Harbin, Changchun, Luzhou and other cities.

Whole industry chain layout

In 1994, Decathlon first entered China as a producer. In 2003, it opened the first shopping mall in Shanghai. Now it has 143 stores in 61 cities in China. It will increase to 160 by the end of the year. In the next five years, it will set up 500 shopping centers in China.

Decathlon is optimistic about the potential of China's sports consumption market in the future.

BertrandTison, Decathlon's Greater China Development Director, once said, "in five years, sales in this country may account for 25% of the company's total sales."

At the same time, as a manufacturer, Decathlon is also strengthening the weight of the Chinese market. Decathlon has procurement centers in 23 countries around the world, and China produces 40% of the group's purchases, that is to say, 40% of Decathlon's global shopping malls are from China.

Decathlon China Logistics Director Santi Ripolles introduces Decathlon China to expand its logistics storage area to two times - 386 thousand square meters at the end of 2016, all used in the Chinese market.

In 2016, Decathlon China logistics team plans to increase the volume of the distribution of shopping malls in China by 40%, and increase the volume of overseas stores by 10%.

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Apart from the law of headquarters, China is the first market of Decathlon to have a complete industrial chain layout. It is in its own hands from product R & D, design, production, brand, logistics to the last retail link.

Decathlon chose to start the whole chain test from its racket sports brand Artengo. The badminton R & D center moved from France to Shanghai, and the product development center and production department were seamlessly connected. The development cycle was shortened from two years to 6 months, and the first batch of racquets designed by China R & D Center was officially launched in 2015.

Unlike Carrefour, WAL-MART and other foreign capital

Although the commodity configuration and operators have adopted localization measures, foreigners have been appointed by the headquarters as head of the Chinese region.

All aspects of Decathlon play are more localized.

From Zhang Yue's resume, it can also reflect that Decathlon believes that local employees and local talents are the best embodiment of innovation. Zhang Yue once served as the manager of two Decathlon stores in Beijing, and then pferred to the general manager of the northeast region, who was responsible for the operation of the store and eventually became the president of Greater China, which is extremely rare in foreign retail.

In Decathlon's view, "the decisions made on the road of localization and the results that are now reflected also make Decathlon confident in China's development".

Talent reserve problem

According to the forecast, the global sports sales market will expand in the next ten years, and Asia will account for 60% of the expanded market, of which China will account for 2/3.

The potential of China's mass sports market is huge, which is an attractive prospect for the whole sports industry, including Decathlon.

Decathlon's goal is to open more than 500 stores in 200 cities in China by 2020.

Sanfo, which has just been listed, is the largest outdoor retail brand chain in China, but it has only 37 stores as of June this year.

Some people in the industry believe that, unlike a single sports brand or outdoor brand, the collection of multi category stores such as Decathlon is seldom seen in China.

Decathlon believes that the current domestic sports retail market is mainly divided into the brand market and the mass market. Decathlon belongs to the latter. The whole industry chain layout in China is the biggest advantage of Decathlon.

At present, Decathlon brand covers nearly 80 kinds of sports. More than 90% of the shopping malls are private brands, and production and procurement centers have been established in 12 cities in China.

Although it is the "unicorn" in the industry, Decathlon also has "growing pains."

In the ten years of 2003-2012 years, di Canon opened 80 shopping malls in China. In 2012, 16 stores opened in China. This figure even exceeded the total number of shops opened by Decathlon in the first five years. In 2014, there were 32 new shopping malls in China.

We need to find and train more people with Decathlon values. This is not easy.

Decathlon said it is making young people understand Decathlon quickly and directly through campus recruitment and open shop days.

Under the dual factors of policy assistance and market demand, sports industry talents have already seen blowout in demand. Beijing key sports consulting company CEO Zhang Qing believes that

On the one hand, talent comes from the training of professional colleges, on the other hand, it comes from past professional experience. However, the number of practitioners is relatively low, and the training system is relatively lagging behind. After a large number of innovative sports companies and giants joined the industry, the demand for talent was magnified instantly.

But Zhang Qing also said that the sports industry is a fusion format, and many primary talents can be supplemented by the flow of personnel in other related industries.