FUNDAMENTALS OF RETAILING PROJECT

ON
DECATHLON

DONE BY,

1) Samreen Kidwai (01)

2) Gopika Anil Nair (09)
3) Debajyoti Ghosh (13)
4) Chaitanya Nagpal (22)
5) Mohammed Hassan (38)

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 DECATHLON

Decathlon is a French sporting goods retailer with availability of

Sport accessories from sport Shoes to Jerseys and fit bit devices to
track their performance; they provide a good range of Protein and
various other Nutrition supplements. With over 1500 stores in 49
countries, it is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world. Its
holding company was formerly known as Oxylane. They follow the
B2B(Business to Business) model.

It was founded by Michel Leclercq in 1976, Decathlon started with a

store in Lille, France. It started to expand abroad a decade later,
to Germany in 1986, Spain in 1992, Italy in 1998, Portugal,
the United Kingdom in 1999, China in 2003, India in 2009, Hong
Kong in 2013, Malaysia in 2016 and Southeast Asia in 2012
and South Africa, Philippines in 2017 and Australia in 2018. The
company employs more than 87,000 stafffrom 80 different
nationalities.As of December 2018, there are 1510 Decathlon stores
worldwide in 49 countries.

Decathlon’s first store in India was opened at Sarjapur in Bangalore in

May 2009.Currently the company has 70 stores all over India and

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they are planning to open more in the future. In the last week of July
2019, decathlon opened its store in DLF Mall of India, Noida.
Currently there are 100 employees working in the DLF store.

French sporting goods retailer Decathlon has earned more revenue

than older local rivals such as Adidas, Nike or Puma in FY18, paced
by broader awareness about fitness in the country and adoption by the
average Indian of sporting disciplines other than cricket.

With revenue of Rs 1,278 crore for the year March 2018, Decathlon is
the largest single branded store in India after Xiaomi.It also made a
profit of Rs 33.8 lakh, the first in India for the retailer that began
operations in the country about a decade ago.

It got approval for single-brand retailing in 2013 and changed its

business model from wholesale to retail.By selling only private labels,
Decathlon controls almost every bit of operations, from pricing and
design to distribution, and keeps its costs and selling prices low.

Decathlon uses a combination of in-house manufacturing because

they don’t want to compromise in the quality that they offer and
outsourcing to stock its shelves. They have manufacturing units in
Bangalore, Philippines, China.

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Product Range
S.No Sport Brand Name
1. Nutrition & Healthcare Aptonia
2. Racket Sports Artengo
3. Cycling & Workshop B’Twin
4. Fishing Caperlan
5. Fitness,Gym,Yoga, Domyos
Dance
6. Trekking Forclaz
7. Horse Riding Fouganza
8. Cricket FLX
9. Target sports such as Geologic
Archery, Darts and
Pétanque
10. Sports Electronics Geonaute
11. Golf Inesis
12. Paddle sports Itiwit
13. Running Kalenji
14. Team Sports Kipsta
15. Hockey KOROK
16. Swimming Nabaji
17. Sports Walking Newfeel
18. Surfing&Boardwalking Olaian
19. Eyewear& Optical Orao
Accessories
20. Combat Sports Outshock

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 21. Rollersports, Skating Oxelo
& Scooters
22. Hiking, Camping & Quechua
Outdoor gear
23. Cycling Rockrider
( Mountain Bike)
24. Mountaineering Simond
25. Hunting Solognac
26. Diving Subea
27. Basketball Tarmak
28. Cycling Triban
(Comfort Oriented)
29. Watersports Tribord
30. Cycling Van Rysel
(Performnce/Racing
Oriented)
31. Skiing& Wed’Ze
Snowboarding

The assortment of the products is done according to the type of sports.

All the products in the store have been put on shelves, racks, hangers,
holding stands.

In the store, the products are divided according to the type of

intensity:-
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  Beginners
 Occasional
 Intermediate
 Rooki
 High Intensity
 All levels

The company is focused on cost-cutting and do not promote their

brand with the help of any celebrity endorsements. They rely on word

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of mouth marketing and the main focus of the company is to satisfy
their customers to the fullest.

The products are meant to encourage all the people to play sports
regardless of their ability or status. The quality and price make it
possible to afford all the items required to participate confidently. The
goal of Decathlon is to build a lifetime relationship with their
customer and the customer’s happiness is their passion.

The USP of the company is customer satisfaction, value for money

and getting approximately 50 sports items under one roof. They
provide 2 years warranty on all of their products.

Each and everything related to the sports is available. Its not only for
sportsmen but there are products also for umpires, coaches, referee.
The company is always trying to make changes in the products to
meet the growing demand by taking feedback from their users.

There are different heads who are managing the inventory in the
stores and try to make sure that all the products are available to fulfil
the needs of the customers.

Sports are not possible without people. Decathlon pays their

employees fair wages, provide excellent benefits(like ESI-Employees
State Insurance, PF and other HR benefits) and provide a clear path

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for growth. The People matter the most to the company and their
employees are the most valuable asset.

Decathlon believes that everything in their stores should be self-

explanatory so that the customers can easily get all the required
information without even asking the salespeople.

The different types of services that are provided by decathlon are as

follows:-
 Baggage counter

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  Welcome Desk

 Cleaning staff
 Trial rooms

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  Washrooms
 Self billing counters are available to ensure that customers don’t
have to wait in long lines and are able to check out themselves
with the help of credit/ debit cards.

 Measurement tapes are also available

 Sports meeting point

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  Online ordering facility is available through their website and an
App. Free delivery is available on products above Rs.999. There
is also an option given to the customers to collect it from the
store as well.

 Different testers for trekking, cycling are available. Along with

that, Decathlon uses Augmented Reality (AR) and there are
projectors put up in the store for trying out golf. There are also
basketball nets, darts boards, carrom boards, pool table available
in the store. With the help of all this the customers can be sure
of what they want to buy.

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After sales services are guaranteed by the company to all the
customers. There is also an in-house workshop, where the customers
can get their products to get fixed.

Decathlon follows 2 different kinds of pricing strategies in their stores

as they want to cater to different sections of the market:
 Market Skimming:- is setting a high price for a product to skim
maximum revenue layer by layer from the segments who are
willing to pay a high price.
 Market Penetration:- is setting a low price for a product to
attract large number of buyers and gain a large market share.

The price range of the shoes is from Rs.799-6499, the t-shirts are
starting from Rs.99. The different price boards are put up in their
stores so that the customers can easily find the products of a specific
price range and a heat zone is created in the stores.

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Seasonal sales take place in order to attract more customers and also
help to clear out their stocks. Everyday discounts are provided to all
of their customers and can take advantage of it whenever they visit the
store. Since, the company follows the B2B model, discounts are also
provided when the products are sold in bulk.

For more than a decade, The Decathlon Foundation has worked to

improve access to education, training and employment. The company
tries to empower those employees who are passionate about sports
through different projects. At their Annual Foundation Day, the
company’s local team members partners with NGOs and other not-
for-profit organisations to aid the under-resourced areas.

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The company is committed to sustainable development, exercising
chemical risk management and measuring carbon emissions during
the manufacturing of their products.
There are different boards put up, which have messages from their
employees, information about treks and also about Reduce Reuse
(why their t-shirts are good and how they are helping the
environment) have been put up.

In 2009, Decathlon's sector rivals, Go Sport and Sport 2000 , joined

forces to set up a common purchasing centre in Switzerland, intended
to pressurize most of the major international suppliers. The company
does not have significant competition due to their specific target
audience in mass-market retail. Inter-sport is also a major competitor
mainly in European market.

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REFERENCES

 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/
decathlon-overtakes-adidas-nike-in-sports-gear-retailing/
articleshow/68804024.cms?from=mdr
 https://www.decathlon.com
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon_Group

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