Who Will Be The First To Win The Race Walking Of Clothing E-Commerce Plate?

Decathlon is a bit lonely on weekdays. In addition to not being on weekends, there may be cold air quality and other reasons, which more or less blocked the pace of many people going out.

But the free playground at the gate of decathlon is bustling. Next to the table tennis table, two old people are playing table tennis like a game. They are full of enthusiasm and constantly emit laughter. A few meters away, is a small basketball court, there are a few young people playing basketball, from time to time called out a variety of passwords.

At the gate of the sports ground, a special basket was set up, which contained hand sanitizer and disinfection supplies. This should be used for epidemic prevention and control.

The free playground is a remarkable mark of decathlon. There's no extra cost to come here for sports. As long as you bring a table tennis racket or basketball, you can have fun with three or five friends. Decathlon has not reduced its investment in the playground because it is free. Both the ground and the equipment are professional standards. The sign of "free playground" is hanging on the net fence, which dispels the doubts of many people who want to exercise.

Decathlon's aim is to "let the public share the joy of sports". This is not only a slogan, but also runs through the stores, products and employees' understanding of the work. The difference between decathlon and other stores is that customers can enjoy the joy of sports.

Decathlon has a magic power, that is, it can make people who don't have a shopping plan can take some goods more or less after they go around the store.

Various interpretations and practices of experience

Decathlon's experience is not on paper. It is actually planning the site and placing samples in the store for customers to experience. According to the information, Decathlon should set aside 15% of the indoor area as the experience area of the shopping mall.

There are more than ten projects for customers to experience. There are not only samples, but also special areas. At the children's bicycle place, several children are riding bicycles on the circular road. Due to safety considerations, more blank areas are left around. It is estimated that there are dozens of square meters of children's bicycle experience area only.

Several children were playing football games, afraid of the ball flying around, the parents blocked the shopping basket at the front door. An employee came to remove the basket, and the parents immediately explained that they were afraid of boring the employees. Employees said the shopping basket blocked the fire door. She said as she left, have fun. Parents immediately relaxed.

Decathlon is willing to invest in the experience, which, in the eyes of many retailers, has reached a frightening and incredible level, such as placing a large number of samples for customers to use. When there are many people on weekends, many experience projects have to queue up. Customers will find samples on the shelves and use them at will. And the employees basically "turn a blind eye" to these sports behaviors.

There is not much passenger flow in the afternoon of weekdays, so customers have enough space to try out the products. Most customers are standing in front of the shelves, either trying on winter clothes or trying out some goods. We are interested in trying to communicate with our peers. After observing a few customers, these people who have tried the goods, basically put the goods in the shopping cart. Even myself, after several trials, also happily bought a stretch band for yoga practice. It can be seen that although there are not many customers in the store, the transaction rate is high.

To my surprise, there are many old people and children in the shop. Some old people come shopping alone, some old people come with their children. The children regard this place as a free playground, and most of them enjoy a sports event. They are familiar with every sport and can be seen as regular visitors here.

He also saw the baby in the pram. He was curious to see that this was probably the smallest customer of decathlon.

"You can't get out when you go in. You have a good time." Some customers left messages on the Internet to express their good feelings for decathlon. Indeed, there is always a reason to have fun at decathlon.

Rigorous cost management

Many of decathlon's prices are surprisingly low. In order to further highlight the advantages, the prices of almost all decathlon products end with 9, such as 199, 19.9, and the word "9" frequently appears in the price tag.

Low price does not mean giving up the requirement of quality. Decathlon's products win by high cost performance. If you want to spend 100 yuan to buy a pair of sports pants, there are dozens of products to choose from, from the material to the pants type, and then to the distinction of sports types, there are a variety of options.

In order to reduce the price, Decathlon has carried out strict cost control. It is reported that decathlon's advertising costs account for only 1% of its turnover, so it is rare to see decathlon actively marketing. As a member, he occasionally receives text messages from decathlon promotions, but only two or three times a year.

There is no shoe box for shoes purchased in decathlon, whether online or offline. It is only wrapped in plastic bags, which not only saves costs, but also is environmentally friendly. When buying decathlon's down jacket online, only one outer bag is wrapped. Sometimes the outer package is broken and the goods are exposed. Although some netizens complain about it, Decathlon still remains the same. Most of the goods sold in decathlon do not have packaging bags. They are directly displayed on the shelves. Some goods are bound with an elastic belt to avoid confusion.

Decathlon has a clear positioning and goals. They know where to spend and where to save. On the one hand, there are many experience areas and the area is like waste. On the other hand, the control of commodity cost is almost harsh. These two distinct impressions overlap in the minds of consumers. They accept the decathlon that is fun, have fun, and can also buy goods with high cost performance.

At the sale site, although we can see the staff, we can see that the number of employees is very small. Most of these employees perform their own duties. Some of them are responsible for recycling goods, some are explaining and communicating with customers, and some are sorting out goods. In fact, just finishing goods is a lot of work. Decathlon encourages customers to try them on, so there are often some tried out products in the store. There seems to be a contradiction between a small number of employees and a large amount of sorting. Decathlon thought of some ways. For example, several large buckets are placed at the door of the fitting room, and the clothes that customers do not intend to buy after trying on can be directly thrown into the barrels and arranged by the staff in a centralized way, which can avoid the whole field of clothes flying around.

Decathlon's cash register has been replaced by a self-service cashier. There is a staff member who assists and supervises the cashier. Decathlon's self-service settlement should be a self-developed system or not in cooperation with common service providers. At each cash register, there is a sunken box. Goods are put in one by one during settlement. The price of goods will be displayed on the screen when each product is placed. Finally, the settlement code of wechat or Alipay nearby is scanned for settlement.

Self service cash register is convenient for customers and saves costs. However, I don't know how decathlon treats elderly customers who can't use self-service. In the shopping mall, I saw the old people shopping by cart. From their calm and familiar state, they should be regular customers in the store.

Decathlon's low-cost strategy makes its customer base very wide range of ages, from children to the elderly, can be the users of decathlon products. Customers' understanding of decathlon is also deep into the bone marrow. There are more than 300 answers to the question of "what is worth buying" from decathlon. This question has attracted nearly 20000 people's attention. All the respondents are familiar with decathlon's products, and most of the answers are written and illustrated.

In decathlon stores, billboards hang on top of a kind of sports socks: 300000 pairs sold a month. Behind the high sales volume, it must be that the quality and price of the goods have been recognized by consumers.

"Sharing the benefits of sports" is not just a slogan

As a sports brand retailer, sports is obviously the soul and essence of decathlon. Decathlon also tried to show from various aspects that it was not only selling sports related goods, but also committed to promoting a healthy life related to sports.

First of all, Decathlon provides welfare support for employees' sports. In order to encourage employees to exercise, employees who have worked full-time at decathlon for more than one year are entitled to annual sports allowance, which is obviously featured by decathlon. It is estimated that such allowance can only be enjoyed in Decathlon.

Secondly, train the staff to be the person in charge of a certain sports project, and lead the customers to share the sports fun together. In the store, beside each kind of sports goods, there are introductions: the name of the person in charge of the project and the QR code. Interested customers can scan the code to join.

In decathlon, as long as it doesn't hinder others and cause safety hazards, you can experience the product to your heart's content. You can play alone, play with friends, and even interact with strangers. Decathlon's spacious venues and sports products are all within reach.

Visiting decathlon can also popularize sports knowledge. As an unprofessional sportsman, he found that there were so many kinds of running shoes: "high frequency jogging", "low frequency jogging", "cross-country running", "marathon", etc. decathlon gave professional recommendations for different sports methods. Ordinary consumers can choose suitable commodities according to their own conditions.

If you are ready to start a sport, Decathlon is a good choice. In decathlon, you can see the basic equipment required by a sport, and you can also join a sports group organized by decathlon to get professional service and product knowledge.

Exploration and future

Many consumers know decathlon online. Decathlon started e-commerce in 2009, which has covered more than 400 cities. Many consumers buy online first, and then understand the brand. When there are offline stores, Decathlon will come into being. There is no need to explain it too much. At present, Decathlon has opened 308 physical stores in 116 cities

For decathlon, online is not only a sales channel, but also an important channel to spread brand awareness and cultivate customers.

Decathlon's online and offline integration is good, and it can basically communicate with each other. If you buy online, you can pick up the goods offline, and the goods purchased online can also be returned and exchanged offline. The seamless connection between online and offline makes decathlon a more powerful whole.

Decathlon (China) was shortlisted in China's top 100 retail stores in 2018, ranking 66th with 10.8 billion yuan. This is a good result, Decathlon has been recognized by many consumers.

But decathlon also seems to have a hidden worry, that is, it is labeled as "entry-level". Under this label, it may lose the cluster of advanced and more professional sports enthusiasts, who are buyers of sustainable sports brands. On the one hand, it is a broader entry-level sports market, on the other hand, it is the choice of more elite athletes. Whether decathlon should choose one to give up the other, or both to strive for a larger market share? This may be a topic for decathlon.

"If you go in, you don't want to come out and have a good time in it". This is the fun decathlon brings to consumers. This fun, attract consumers to increase the frequency of shopping, attract them to buy goods without shopping plan, which is the charm of decathlon.