Anta Develops Concept Retail Space In High End Sports Market

Nowadays, major sports brands at home and abroad are competing to open concept stores. On the one hand, they can increase the space for product launch and try to seize more customers; on the other hand, they can integrate more consumption scenarios.

The opening of Beijing Sanlitun concept retail space is the first time that Descente Blanc opened outside Japan, the birthplace of its brand. Previously, Descente Blanc had only stores in Japan. At the same time, Ta is also a large department Blanc store.

Official brand source: Pictures

　　 "Blank" retail space, let the focus return to the product itself

The word "Blanc" in descent Blanc comes from French, meaning "white, blank".

On the one hand, it represents a minimalist aesthetic style of retail space, hoping that consumers will focus on the product itself. Therefore, the products of this store not only sell all terrain series with high-end function of Descente, but also sell pause and DDD life and leisure series with new Japanese aesthetic style.

On the other hand, blank means unknown. The concept retail space of descent Blanc aims to blur the boundary between traditional technological sportswear and daily casual wear, so as to pursue individual's individual choice in blank and non-specific situations. Consumers can use the platform of Decente Blanc to create a personal style.

The design style of Sanlitun store continues the concept of "design that moves" of design brand to drive sports spirit, and further integrates sports into space.

The highlights of the store are the hanging mobile lifting display system, 65 movable shelves and 14 horizontally movable storage spaces, presenting the hidden storage space in front of customers.

In addition, from October 31 to November 9, the 85 anniversary glory exhibition of Descente was set up outside the store; on November 7 and November 8, Descente also brought Japanese wear and skiing photography workshop to this concept retail space.

　 Every shop in Japan can hang clothes on the ceiling by playing "automatic lifting clothes hanger"

In fact, Descente Blanc Sanlitun concept retail space is a continuation of its Japanese stores have always been simple style.

In Japan, "leave blank" has always been the key word of the store image of Descente Blanc. Stores are designed with simple lines and uncomplicated colors to create a bright, open and easy to communicate business space. All stores in the decoration are reserved a large area of blank, to create a different from the ordinary sports brand unique cold feeling.

Like the retail concept space of Beijing Sanlitun, the hanging mobile lifting display system is the "key play" of each department Blanc. This way of display makes the whole process of sales and service transparent. Generally speaking, when a consumer enters a store to buy clothes, the process is to choose clothes, and the assistant helps us find the right size and try on clothes. But in descent Blanc, this process can be fully presented to consumers: you can watch how the shop assistant finds the clothes you want to try on, and then "drops" the clothes to you through the automatic lifting device, which is a way to build the interaction between products and consumers.

At the same time, such a design not only shortens the time for shop assistants to look for products for customers in the warehouse, but also improves the service efficiency, changes the daily behavior of store staff to pick up goods from the warehouse, and also solves the inventory problem in the store. Products that are overstocked in the warehouse can be "hung" in the store from time to time.

For consumers, the high convenience and creative clothing display shelf of this mobile system makes the product display constantly changing and moving, which is also an interesting shopping experience.

　　 Anta's high-end sports brand has been in China for three years, with stores all over the country

Descente, a Japanese high-end winter sports brand, was founded in 1935. The brand was formerly known as ishimoto men's retail store, which was founded in Osaka, Japan by Japanese entrepreneur ishimoto. The name of the brand is taken from the French word for "sliding". The three arrow forms of its logo respectively represent the three important skills in skiing - "high speed straight sliding", "crossing" and "side sliding". TA represents the brand gene of Descente starting from skiing and the spirit of pursuing excellence and bold innovation.

In February 2016, Anta, Descente and Itochu cooperated to establish a joint venture company DCH in China through their subsidiaries Anders, Descente global retail (DGR) and Itochu textile prominent (Asia) Limited (IPA) in China, holding 30%, 10% and 60% respectively. Descente was officially established in 2017 Introduce into the mainland market of China.

After three years of retail channel layout, it has been profitable in fy2019. The annual sales volume reached 1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 75%, and established brand recognition in the domestic high-end sports market. According to the official website of Descente, as of November 10, 2020, Descente has 171 retail stores in mainland China, covering Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Kunming, Sanya and other cities. Previously, the focus of the expansion of Descente stores was on the South Korean market. However, due to the slow growth of brands in the Korean market and the Anti Japanese sentiment in South Korea in recent two years, Descente began to focus more on the Chinese market.

This year, affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic and warm winter weather, consumer demand for sports has decreased, resulting in a loss in desant. However, this situation reversed in the third quarter. On October 15, Anta announced that in the third quarter of 2020, the retail amount of Anta brand products will achieve a positive growth of low unit number year on year. Among them, the revenue of Descente and Kolon sport totaled 740 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 8.3%.

In July of the same year, Anta reorganized its business in China. After the completion of the restructuring, Anta Group's shareholding in dishant China will be reduced from 60% to 54%, and Descente global and Itochu will hold 40% and 6% respectively. Desant China controls entities operating the brand business in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.

Ding Shizhong, chairman and CEO of Anta board of directors, has repeatedly mentioned that market segmentation is an opportunity for Anta to catch up with international giants in the future, while Descente is expanding its market in high-end and winter sports fields. From the perspective of consumer groups, there are more and more middle class in China, and the wave of consumption upgrading is becoming more and more fierce. This time, Descente opened the concept retail space of Descente Blanc brand in Sanlitun, Beijing. It is not difficult to see that Descente wants to further harvest the domestic middle class or above users.