Decathlon has several other new markets on the radar, after an anniversary year in which it entered five of them and opened many new stores, helping to lift its total sales above €10 billion in connection with its 40th birthday (see the previous article in this issue). This year, it's going to be the turn of Austria and Switzerland, and possibly other countries as well such as Israel, where it has a team in place to study the market, and in Canada. As previously reported, the world's biggest integrated sporting goods retailer has already made some moves in Australia and South Africa as a prelude to the possible opening of physical stores.

As it has done in other cases, the French retail group is approaching the Swiss market from the internet. After a beta test during the month of December, which allowed it to analyze the local demand, late last month it launched a full-fledged transactional website for consumers in Switzerland, charging prices in Swiss francs for a multitude of products in 70 categories. The pages are in French as well as German, Italian and English.

With more and more Swiss customers going shopping at some of its French stores near the Swiss border, especially after the strong appreciation of the Swiss franc, the world's largest integrated sporting goods retailer had carried out a study of the local requirements in terms of customs clearance, logistics and sales strategies.

Decathlon said it intends to have a physical presence in the country, with a first bricks-and-mortar store of between 2,000 and 4,000 square meters that could be opened in Switzerland before the end of 2017. One of its managers, Christian Ollier, for global manager for the Quechua brand, is checking out the possibilities in the shopping centers and the suburban areas of five major metropolitan areas, close to a highway. The traffic on its Swiss web store will allow the company to further explore the needs and requirements of Swiss consumers and to validate the attractiveness of its banner.

Decathlon had told us a few years ago that it was not interested in Switzerland. A spokesperson for the company tells us now that it is also studying the Austrian market, confirming recent reports. After finding the right formula for the tough German market, where the number of its stores grew by 11 to 36 stores in the past year, a team based in Vienna is looking at the market with a plan to open the first Decathlon store in Austria at the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018.

Because of its stronger focus on affordable private label products, Decathlon would probably be a less dangerous new competitor for well-established local players like Intersport or Sport 2000 than for Sports Direct and XXL, the equally price-aggressive Norwegian sports retailer that is entering the Austrian market this year, starting with the Vienna area. Focusing more on branded products offered at interesting prices, XXL has a long-term objective of setting up 80 to 100 stores throughout the country. As it has done in Norway and Sweden, it will probably attack one major city at a time. More on XXL in the next article in this issue.

Intersport, Sport 2000 and Hervis Sport have benefited from the weakening of the former biggest retailer in Austria, Sport Eybl & Sports Experts, since its takeover by Sports Direct International in May 2013. Nearly one-third of the British retailer's Austrian stores have shut down. Intersport, in particular, has been occupying the ground with many new and relatively sophisticated stores in Vienna and other parts of the country to assert itself as “best in town” alternative for shoppers.

In a relatively flat Austrian market, Sport 2000 raised its retail sales last year by 3.1 percent to €461.0 million including VAT in spite of virtually no change in the number of retail members and an actual decline in the number of their stores. It grew especially in the bike, outdoor and running categories.

Intersport grew faster at retail in Austria, rising by 13 percent to around €450 million including VAT, but about half of the growth was attributable to the opening of new stores. It ended the year with 285 shops run by 110 retail members.