Intersport España, which reopened its e-commerce site on March 21, has just announced a 500 percent year-on-year increase in online sales for the month of April. The Covid-19 quarantine has catapulted the home fitness category to the forefront. Yoga mats, fitness bands, chin-up bars, dumbbells and the like accounted for 55.17 percent of the month’s sales – 48 percentage points more than in April 2019. The quarantine actually saw online sales decline early on, but things turned around in the first week of April, and since then, according to Spanish cooperative’s chief executive, Xavier Alomar, they have outperformed Black Friday. Demand for other products – notably for children and for running – has started to recover since April 26, when those 14 and older were allowed back outside for an hour a day, and on May 2, when the ban on outdoor sports was lifted. Intersport España expects such demand to continue rising gradually as we approach the “new normal.” Alomar believes that omnichannel retail will play “an even greater role after Covid-19.” Many of the group’s stores, as he noted to CMDsport, are already equipped with electronic tablets, which enable stores to offer a wider selection and search through the inventory of other Intersport stores.

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