Citing increasing competition in the running market from established retailers and the websites of the sports brands, which have led to rising marketing costs and shrinking margins, 21sportsgroup, a major German online retailer with European ambitions, said that it will phase out one of its online stores, 21run, by the end of the first quarter of 2019.
The 21run web store has started a major clearance campaign, offering a 50 percent discount on all its products. The two 21run physical stores in Munich and Dresden have been shut down.
Last September, the group had already closed Vaola, an online marketplace bought three years ago that offers a wider range of sports products. In mid-2017, it shed two other specialized online sales platforms, 21cycles and 21streetwear.
The group has now decided to concentrate on Planet Sports, a rather strong and well-known online and offline retail operation for action sports products that it had acquired in March 2015, and on Clubsale, the group's own shopping club for flash sales of discounted sports and lifestyle products.
According to German press reports, 21run represented about one-fourth of the group's revenues, but Planet Sports' sales jumped by 36 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, allowing 21sportsgroup to exceed its previous overall sales forecast of €100 million for the full year. The growth was attributed to many new activities in the social media. A new retail concept is in preparation to make Planet Sports' brick-and-mortar stores more attractive.
The reorganization of 21sportsgroup follows its acquisition by three former media-related investors that are still involved with The Social Chain Group, which is active in the areas of social media, marketing and social commerce as well as the organization of conventions and influencer marketing (SGI Europe Vol. 29 N° 21+22 of July 3, 2018). A media specialist, Georg Kofler, was appointed chief executive of 21sportsgroup.
