La Loupe Garmisch-Partenkirchen No. 5

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L.L. A lot has changed since the
beginnings of the online business.
The internet has changed and
become more important for the
retail sector. How do you run
your online shop today?
H.C. Meanwhile we employ
15 people in our e-commerce
department that take care of
the online shop – specialists from
all sorts of sectors. Of course,
sometimes it would be nice to
go back to the good old times
because today everything is
hectic and everything happens
at the same time. There used to
be quiet times for retail, with
the online business those times
are long past. At the moment
half of our sales are made in the
shops and half in the online shop.
Which is quite a lot, seeing as
we’re originally a stationary retail business.
The online merchandise is stored in a separate, 3,500-square
metre storage facility near Penzberg. Our customers can
have the products delivered to one of the shops where they
can get advice in person. And the other way round our
customers from the shops can have the products delivered to
their home. We have simply united the two business models.
HANS CONRAD´S WORDRAP
This type of sports keeps me fit:
Ski tours. Even before work.
Alpine skiing or ski tours?
Ski tours.
I’d advise people looking to open
a business to …
go about it with the utmost passion.
Online or offline?
Offline.
My backpack
… is what I need whenever I venture
into the mountains.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen in three words:
Loveable, sometimes a bit odd, my home.
L.L. More and more people order goods online. How
important is personal advice today?
H.C. Personal advice still lies at the core of our business.
Our sales staff can give customers authentic advice on
ski tours, they really know a lot about the sport because
the practise it themselves. That’s the aspiration we have.
We want our customers to enjoy our products and to be
happy about the equipment they bought.
Of course, the online business grows faster than the
stationary trade. That does mean, however, that a part of
the high-quality advice we give is lost, even if the customers
don’t feel that way. Sometimes we’re sad to see that customers
put together a ski set or a ski touring set online where
we know the combination isn’t ideal. In such cases our staff
and customers service will often get active and contact
the customers. And I must say, good advice in the shops is
incredibly valuable, and that’s something no online shop
can offer – not even the chat.
L.L. Do you buy online?
H.C. I maybe buy things online once a year, usually
because I have no other choice since the product isn’t available
anywhere in town. Most of the time though I’m a
bad online shopper, I just like going to shops and looking
at the products in person. I miss that experience online.
L.L. Sport Conrad is specialised in winter sports and
mountaineering, and there are trend sports here, too.
How do you decide which kinds of sports to include in the
product range?
H.C. Since we are located in beautiful Garmisch-Partenkirchen
we get to see up close what trends come up in the
area of mountaineering and skiing. Our location really is
an advantage and we see very soon if something becomes
a trend sport.
Trends that don’t work in our surroundings will not become
part of our product range. We focus on the trends that people
here like and sports that can be practised here, such as trail
running, mountain biking, or ski touring.
L.L. Sport Conrad is present at test events in the region.
What is it that makes those events so important?
H.C. We have several big test events each year. There’s
the AlpenTestival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Alpin
Tiefschneetage (= powder days) twice a year which we
initiated 14 years ago, in cooperation with Alpin magazine.
These events are very important for us because the end
consumers are right there and we can watch them
Sport & Freizeit
“Here in Garmisch-
Partenkirchen we
always were a
few steps ahead.”
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