After doing its own thing in the area of e-commerce, as the Intersport organizations in France and some other countries are still doing, Intersport Germany has decided to take part in the international development of Intersport 2.0, the omni-channel digitalization strategy of Intersport International Corporation (IIC).
With retail members in Germany as well as Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it is also referred to as IDEA and is the largest retail organization within the Intersport Group.
IIC and IDEA have decided “to realize their digital ambitions together,” said IIC in a public statement. They will share their technical platforms and related services. Their teams have already started defining the work ahead and the respective migration plans.
According to Alexander von Preen, chief executive of Intersport Germany, the collaboration will produce financial synergies for the required investments, share best practices, transfer the knowledge accumulated in Germany, harmonize skill and tool sets and scale the same technology in many different countries.
IIC’s digital platform, which is served out of Amsterdam, has proven its ability to attract more end customers online and to boost the retail members’ sales through a seamless omni-channel experience. Ten national organizations are already linked with the platform, including the Austrian and Hungarian parts of IDEA. The others are Intersport and The Athlete’s Foot (TAF) in the Netherlands, TAF in the U.S., and the Intersport groups in Denmark, Spain, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Norwegian Intersport will be connected early next year, following Gresvig’s recent decision to drop the alternative G-Sport banner (SGI Europe Vol. 30 N° 29+30 of Aug. 29, 2019). Some markets in the Asia/Pacific region will likely join soon.
Intersport’s omni-channel project is not an easy feat, considering that most of the stores are not directly owned by the national Intersport organizations, but by independent retailers that are affiliated with them. In Germany and other countries, Sport 2000 is working on the implementation of a similar system based on the schuhe.de internet platform developed for German shoe retailers by the ANWR Group, which also owns the Sport 2000 organizations in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
While indicating that the schuhe.de website is being freshened up, ANWR has just announced that Alexander Hock and Gregor Bernhart will on Dec. 31 become the joint managing directors of ANWR Media, the group’s five-year-old e-commerce department subsidiary. The two executives have set up a new service company with which ANWR has signed a long-term agreement for management of schuhe.de and its further development. Michael Decker will leave as joint managing director of ANWR Schuh to take over their responsibilities and all sata management for the group.
