sportFACHHANDEL 08_2018 Leseprobe

8.2018 Stores
Stores | RETAIL | 111
Sascha Dühring leads
through the Intersport
Olympics branch. He
is especially proud of
the competence of the
employees
opening of the Décathlon branch, but others can
easily compensate this. He is visibly proud of the
branch and the employees. He reports that some
staff members have worked in the shop for 20 years ;
and the team is proud to be the only shop offering an
area for fans of the Berlin football club Union Berlin.
“The decisive factor for us is,“ Sascha Dühring
explains, “that a satisfied customer leaves the shop
with a good impression of Intersport Olympia and
Intersport in general. In this respect, we have to
consider the whole picture. Only when we are able
to convince the customers of Intersport, we will
remain strong as company and as retailer organisation.“
He tried to convey this principle to the
employees when the goods hub was established.
In order to “dispel potential fears and to explain
and demonstrate the team the benefits of the
new options, it was particularly important to talk
intensively to the staff members“. According to his
opinion, a stationary retailer must be open towards
the online trade, because “the link to the web is
indispensable, if you want to act on the market
as modern company“. For this reason, Intersport
Olympia trained its employees intensively, together
with the staff of the three Voswinkel shops, on the
occasion of the implementation of the new concept
with the Red and Blue Worlds.
Since the establishment of the cooperative
dealer platform and the goods hub, the Berlin
retailer has noticed that the online shop has been
well received by the customers. Via their iPads, the
digital column or the PC, the sales personnel of
Intersport Olympia checks out whether a product
not in stock is available at another shop linked to
the hub. “It is evident that the recommendation system
of the goods hub works well in both directions,“
Sascha Dühring reports, ‘the cooperation with the
Future Stores works very well. “Our teams were
together at the Kick-Off event and during the courses
anyway. Our goal was to link the branches of
Voswinkel and Olympia more strongly – not only in
case of the hub, but also in marketing and in general
and, in my view, we have achieved this.“ During
the initial phase of the hub, they did not place any
additional orders. Now, after the test phase, it is
necessary to observe the sales thoroughly, in order
to adjust the own order behaviour. Mr Dühring says,
“We had, for example, high sales figures in the outdoor
shoe category, online as well as stationary. The
consequence was that we could not offer our usual
broad range anymore. This means for us, that we
have to look closer and to purchase more exactly.“
Sascha Dühring plans to expand the product
hub to further subsidiaries: at first, in the new
shop in Leipzig and then, in Potsdam in next spring;
and Intersport intends to continue along the same
path. “The pilot phase of our product hub is not yet
over,“ Carsten Schmitz points out, “we are testing
the system and constantly further developing it.
Currently, more than 20.000 different products
from more than 100 shops are available via the hub.
Approximately 20 shops have a device providing
the customers access to this order process.“ It is
planned to start the roll-out on national level in this
year already. Sascha Dühring sticks to his principle
and says, “If we have a certain product in the
Intersport family, we will do everything that the
customer will receive it.“ Intersport Olympia continues
to be an independent company, just like other
members of the retailer association or Intersport
Voswinkel. The Berlin retailer underlines, “Nevertheless,
we all have a common goal: we want to
satisfy the customer and, therefore, we work
together and do not compete with each other.“