Nike, Anta, Cage... Why Do Sports Brands Like To Open "Super Stores"?

Skech's (SKECHERS) dream of opening a "super store" is a step closer to reality.

Recently, Cage's hand in hand menswear brand YOUNGOR will take advantage of YOUNGOR's channel advantage in China to layout more than 1000 square meters of "super large shop".

In fact, nowadays, the stores of major sports brands are bigger and bigger, and Nike, Adidas, Anta and Lining are all in the layout of "super stores", trying to seize more traffic.

Cage's 100 super stores program

As the sporting goods spleen of the United States, Cage has been in China for 12 years. This year's three quarterly report shows that Skech has more than 3300 stores in the world, including 779 self operated stores. It is worth mentioning that China, as one of Cage's most important strategic markets, now has 24 "super stores" landing. Skech plans to add 900-1000 new stores in China next year, including 100 "super stores" with an area of 1000-3000 square meters. The new stores are mainly located in three or four line cities and below market in China.

Skech, chief executive of China, South Korea and Southeast Asia, Chen Weili said that these "super stores" have larger areas and more complete categories. Skech is a Brand Company responsible for managing brands and products, while the channel side wants to cooperate with China's retail resources and experienced companies, so this choice is hand in hand with YOUNGOR.

For cooperation, Li Rucheng, chairman of YOUNGOR group, said that YOUNGOR has more than 10 thousand marketing personnel and more than 3000 stores in the whole country, and YOUNGOR also hopes to expand its sports field.

Economist Song Qinghui believes that YOUNGOR and YOUNGOR cooperate to open shop, in order to make up for their shortcomings in the channel, increase the space for product delivery, and integrate into more consumer scenarios.

China Business Daily reporter noted that in recent years, Skech has been exploring new opportunities for cooperation, but it has encountered difficulties in choosing "teammates". In 2015, Skech signed a cooperation agreement with AOKANG group. At that time, AOKANG international chairman Wang Zhentao promised to open 1000 stores for Cage. However, in the three quarter of this year, the newspaper disclosed that AOKANG opened 81 stores and 68 outlets for Cage, with a total of only 149, far below commitments. It remains to be seen whether this team can cooperate with Skech.

"Super stores" will be the future trend

Compared with Cage's choice of partners to expand channels, more sports brands chose to run directly into "super stores":

Adidas has opened a number of "brand center" large retail stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other places. Adidas's official website shows that its brand center store area is 2000-5000 square meters, and stores gather almost all products of Adidas. Adidas also provides gymnasium and fitness trainer for some shops.

Nike also opened "Shanghai 001" in Shanghai. According to public data, as of the end of last year, this area of 3822 square meters of flagship store online WeChat platform exposure has reached 85 million times. Online, the store receives up to 30 thousand visitors per day. The core midfield (this is the interactive game area and product experience area in the store, consumers can accomplish many challenges through infrared induction, test the performance of sports shoes) and test the number of customers daily to 4000 times, and the business volume reaches 1.6 times the target before the opening. In addition, Nike provides a variety of personalized customization services. After selecting the shoes, Nike members can participate in the customization of shoes in person.

Domestic brands are also not to be outdone. Anta has landed ninth generation of terminal image stores this year. In addition to the store area and product richness to the international brand, the store also has self-service cash register system, cloud storage rack and VIP area video interactive system and other intelligent devices.

Lining's first super store in Beijing is located in Fung Wanda Plaza. Data show that this year's store business grew by more than 50% over the same period last year. In addition, the high-tech Wanda Plaza store in Dalian is also a "super large shop". It runs for 13 days and reaches 1 million yuan. At present, the store effect is around 1 million 100 thousand yuan per month.

A Adidas dealer told the China Commercial Daily reporter that opening a "super store" is a trend. The major sports brands are catching up with customers. They hope that consumers can stay in the store more, thus increasing consumption opportunities. In addition, "super store" is also a symbol of brand image and strength.

"Super stores" need matching services

Liu Liang, a clothing industry expert, told the China Commercial Daily reporter that "super stores" are the new trend of marketing channels of sports brands. Sports brand has gone through the stage of crazy shop, and has experienced "closed shop tide". After the emergence of the electricity supplier, many sports brands have switched to e-commerce channels, but the demand of the electricity supplier channels for logistics, supply chain and inventory adjustment is very high.

He said that for a long time, there were some ideas in the industry that the use of physical stores would become smaller as the rent increased. But facts have proved that online and offline must not be left behind. In the short term, these enterprises need to make great efforts to reform, but in the long run, the overall capabilities of enterprises need to be improved.

Reporters in the interview found that consumers' expectations for "super stores" are very high. The reporter came to the Adidas brand center located in Sanlitun, Beijing. During the interview, many consumers said that visiting the "super store" is a sense of experience. The psychological expectation is high. The price of the product is understandable, but if the salesperson does not know the brand culture and products well, he will be disappointed.

The dealer also said that some brands require the salesperson to run at least five kilometers in the shoes of the store, so that the clerk can have deeper communication with consumers, such as the characteristics of the product and the way of running. This is a complete marketing logic, not as simple as selling a pair of shoes.

Liu Liang believes that "super stores" do need to match better service personnel. Enterprises should carefully train these service personnel, so that they can fully understand the corporate culture and product characteristics, so as to improve consumers' shopping experience.