Kant, a major Russian sporting goods retailer, has opened a second shop-in-shop in a Decathlon store in the country, following a successful first experiment that began two years ago in a shopping center in Zelenograd, a city in province of Moscow (SGI Europe Vol. Vol. 28 n°32+33 of Oct. 31, 2017). A third one is due to open next April, completing the experimental collaboration project.
Anton Vinogradov, managing partner of Kant, said that sales at the Decathlon store in Zelenograd have grown by 17 percent after his chain set up a dedicated space, offering a variety of branded items to complement Decathlon's lower-priced private-label offerings, benefiting both partners.
It was estimated that 70 percent of the clients who were visiting Kant's shop-in-shop were making purchases in Decathlon, and in a similar way, Decathlon's customers were also able to find something of interest for them in Kant, Vinogradov said. The collaboration is also helpful for the numerous premium brands that cannot sell their products in Decathlon stores.
The second Kant shop-in-shop was recently opened in a Decathlon store in the Teply Stan area of Moscow. Kant's retail space is bigger than that of an ordinary “shop-in-shop.” It occupies 814 out of the 6,350 square meters of the Decathlon mega-store in Teply Stan. The new Kant store is bigger than the one in Zelenograd, and Vinogradov expects to generate double the turnover of the first store there.
There are plans to open a third, similar, Kant store next April in the city of Nizhniy Novgorod, the capital of the federal district of Volga, which has a population of more than 1.2 million.
By the end of the three trials, the two partners plan to scale up their project, opening similar shops elsewhere, possibly outside Russia, said Vinogradov, adding that the ultimate goal for Kant is to expand outside Russia, including to the Baltic States and Central Asia, where Decathlon has no presence yet. We understand that Decathlon is planning to enter both of these territories shortly.
Vinogradov did not exclude possible collaboration also in Poland, where Decathlon is a big player. An expanded collaboration would help Decathlon to compete against Sportmaster, the leader in the Russian sporting goods market, which also has a strong presence in Central Asia and recently signed an agreement in principle to take over the Go Sport stores in Poland.
