The growing popularity of e-commerce, particularly through marketplaces like that of Amazon, is not bothering Intersport France at this stage, as the number of people visiting its stores grew by 3.2 percent last year, partly attracted by promotions that represented more than 35 percent of their sales. Online ski rentals and other revenues from the website of Intersport France represented only 1.6 percent of the turnover last year.
While planning to open 18 more Intersport stores and renovating or transferring 56 units in 2019, the French members of Intersport have agreed to become more active on the internet, following a system that differs from those being tested in the Netherlands or Germany. The majority of them have already started to accept click-and-collect orders at their individual locations. Starting in April, a select group of 14 retail members were also allowed to respond to orders placed by customers on a common website. The beneficiaries will be automatically chosen based on proximity, the availability of the products and their ability to deliver them within 48 hours.
Based on a special algorithm, this “ship from store” system will see about 100 retail members connected by the end of this year, and more in the future. Additional investments are planned in the next few years in the digitalization of the stores, allowing the retailers to collect more data on the habits and preferences of their customers in order to better tailor their offerings to the local market demand.
A new loyalty program will be launched at the end of this year.
