Why Decathlon is a winner

As a sports and fitness enthusiast, you can often spot me in sporting goods stores. I seem to gravitate towards them. So, when I read that French sporting goods retailer Decathlon’s revenues in India surged past the likes of Nike, Adidas and Puma in 2018, it got me thinking.

What exactly did the brand do to get so successful so fast? (It’s done so well that it is reportedly India’s second-largest single-brand retailer after Xiaomi.)

As a frequent visitor to Decathlon stores, the obvious first reason seems to be the brand’s extreme commitment to the customer. It wants to make sports integral to your lifestyle, a drive reflected by its experiential stores. Also, its not as hard on your wallet as the other brands mentioned above – you can buy a lot of good-quality merch for a few thousand rupees, with a return guarantee. A pair of shoes alone could set you back five figures in a Nike or Adidas store.

Decathlon is an everyman brand that has made itself relevant to beginners and intermediate-level sports lovers.

The stores are its trump card – India has never seen anything like them. Massive, measuring 5,382 square feet to 129,167 square feet (or between the area of two tennis courts and two football grounds), they are built for experience, not sale. As you walk around, you’ll see many families dropping by just to have fun. I frequently spot couples on dates there. (What a great idea!)

Depending on the store, you’ll find dart boards, basketball hoops, mini football goals... This encourages children to try out a sport and keeps parents happy. It complements Decathlon’s tapping into the passion of its adult customers for fitness or a sport. It’s a feelgood, wholesome experience that results in most visitors buying something even though there is no compulsion to purchase.

But that’s not all. The stores are intelligently designed, encouraging you to explore every section instead of going straight to the one you’re interested in. It means also that you get all that you need under one roof; no need to visit multiple stores anymore. Their Spartan floors and walls may seem like unnecessary scrimping but they do highlight the displays better and keep you focused on the gear. The floor prints that demonstrate, say, sizes of shoes, make choosing equipment simpler and keep the focus on the display.

Let’s not forget the highly knowledgeable and friendly staff either. They ensure that customers get the product best suited to them, ignoring the price. This is true service and relationship-building. Lastly, you won’t find any unfit staff – they just wouldn’t be right for a brand so committed to sports.

To talk-talk is better than to spend-spend

Let me digress a little for a quick Singapore stop-and-return. Many brands use digital and immersive experiences, but the Decathlon Singapore Lab is taking it all a notch higher. The lab focuses on creating a community, hosting sports clinics and fitness programmes in-store to engage with locals. Decathlon is partnering also with academies and clubs for workshops and sports festivals. The lab offers free health checkups, sharing advice from experts on fitness and healthy lifestyles. In India, you’re already seeing such workshops on disciplines such as kickboxing.

To me, it shows real commitment – a brand living its purpose.

This is exactly why in India, despite not spending big on marketing, Decathlon has raced past bigger rivals. The experience it provides – and its commitment – has shown results through good old word-of-mouth promotion.

It helps too that India’s recent sporting successes – outside of cricket – have resulted in huge interest in sports such as athletics and badminton. Shuttler PV Sindhu’s win in the world championships and runner Hima Das’ recent stardom are only two catalytic examples. Decathlon has successfully ridden this wave.

This is terrific for a brand that was approved for single-brand retail in India only in 2013; it was in the cash-and-carry, wholesale space since 2009. Decathlon changed its business model after 2013 to retail and expanded more than 10 times to more than 50 stores. Smartly, it avoided expensive downtown locations, sticking to the suburbs or malls that weren’t doing well to ensure it got the large spaces at great rents. This lowered costs and allowed it to cap prices.

Decathlon’s India story is one of intelligent business plays, focus and a burning commitment to the customer. There’s a lot to be learnt from it. It shows that, no matter how much times change, the basics of business success don’t. As Decathlon converts its India sprint into a marathon, I’ll be watching.

The author is Principal Consultant at Pitchfork Partners, a new-age brand communication consultancy

#brand #brands #sport #sports #marketing #customer #sportsgear #sportswear