Decathlon – A Sports Store with a Difference

“If marketing were a sport, it would be the decathlon”

Decathlon was founded in lille, France in 1976 by businessman Michel Leclercq. It is the
flagship brand of the French group ‘Auchan’ and now has more than 1,400 stores in over 45
countries such as 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 82,000 staff from 80 different nationalities. Decathlon products are also
available online through their online resellers in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Hungary,
United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Brazil,
Portugal, Romania, Ireland, Mexico, Australia, and recently, Egypt and Vietnam.

Decathlon stores, an entirely new format is big—sprawling from over at least 4000 square feet
to 35,000 square feet store with testing zones for sports equipment in India. In comparison,
sports goods shops in the country are tiny. Even in malls or supermarkets, sports goods get
only a corner, about half the area of a typical Decathlon store. It uses the extra space for indoor
sporting facilities and also first store format that has testing zones for equipment. The store has
testing zones where customers can try out products before buying them. For example, there is
a testing zone for team sports, with goal posts, basketball hoops and backboards for customers
to practise shooting hoops. The store also has a trampoline as well as a bicycle repair workshop,
where customers can have their bicycle - of any brand - repaired for a fee. "Decathlon is known
for its value pricing and product variety. This would be the first test of big-format retail’s
impact on small merchants in a niche segment. More than 95,000 apparel, equipment and
footwear products - from tennis rackets to scuba-diving equipment are available at the store.
These products cover more than 50 types of sports and will be sold under the company's 20 in-
house labels, such as its hiking brand Quechua and its team sports brand Kipsta.

If a marketer wants to master the profession’s various disciplines, they must focus completely
and ignore distractions. Marketers have to be accomplished in a range of sub-disciplines as
diverse in their way as the 100 metres and the shot-put because today’s brand manager needs
to have skills in social, search, consumer understanding, design, advertising, product
development – the whole thing.
The retailer develops and sells its own brands, which the company characterizes as "passion
brands". Each sport or group of sports has a separate brand name. There are also Brands
providing technical support for the products for the company's passion brands. “It could turn
out to be a category killer, and create and define the category because of the experience and
product mix it has,” It has been present in the wholesale market with a cash-and-carry model
for the past three years.
Question
1. Elaborate on the uniqueness of the layout observed at Decathlon
2. Discuss the retail store location strategy