Decathlon has opened an ultra-modern flagship store in a building that will also house the French retailer's headquarters for the Russian market. With a retail space of 3,100 square meters and 900 m² for a restaurant and three exercise rooms where visitors can try sporting gear, it is located on the site of a former Soviet automotive plant in Moscow.
It will be the first store in Russia employing robots. They will be set to fill the shelves with products that weigh up to 800 kg, navigating across the warehousing space and the retail space through QR codes placed on the floor. The system is currently being tested while the store is closed to customers. The store uses only electronic price tags and offers fewer POS materials than other Decathlon stores in Russia.
To attract customers, the store is located close to multi-functional sporting complex, the CSKA Arena. With this opening, Decathlon now runs 59 stores in Russia, including 21 in Moscow and the Moscow region.
…and a shop-in-shop in Kiev
Like Decathlon, the Auchan chain of hypermarkets is controlled by the Mulliez Group, and many of the two chain's stores are located in the same shopping centers. This time, Decathlon has decided to try out a new formula by opening a shop-in-shop in Kiev. It will be the second Decathlon store in Ukraine.
The new Decathlon store is slated to open in late autumn in the Lavina Mall, where the Auchan store occupies 16,000 square meters. Out of this space, 3,000 square meters will be given to Decathlon, with the goal of improving customer traffic and the effectiveness of the retail space, while increasing brand awareness and providing new opportunities for cross-selling.
Hypermarkets and other types of mass merchants offer a small selection of sporting goods in several countries where the retail trade is underdeveloped.
Decathlon opened its first store in Ukraine in the Petrovka Retail Park earlier this year. That store occupies 2,500 square meters, selling 40,000 different items under 30 brands. Next year, the chain is planning to further expand its presence in Kiev, and by 2021 it should start widening the scope of its operations beyond the Ukrainian capital to other big cities like Odessa and Lviv.
The stores will mostly measure between 2,000 and 3,000 square meters, but the company may also test shops with a smaller format. The total number of stores will depend on the local demand.
