Intersport Germany is performing a little better than before. On the first day of the new OutDoor by Ispo show in Munich, which ran from June 30 to July 3, the German-based retail cooperative reported an increase of 5 percent in its members' retail sales for the first five months of 2019 in the five markets where it operates, as compared to the same period of last year. Online sales represented 15 percent of the members' total sales.
Earlier this year, Intersport Germany had reported a drop of 3 percent to €2.85 billion in its home market in 2018 – the first in many years – and a decline of 1 percent in the five markets it serves to €3.53 billion (SGI Europe Vol. 30 N° 7+8 of Feb. 19, 2019).
At its more recent conference, the management stressed that Intersport is still by far the biggest factor in the sporting goods sector in Germany, followed by two pure online players. According to NPD's consumer panel, which does not cover the same categories as our own European retail charts, Intersport had a market share of 11.8 percent in the German sporting goods retail market in 2018. Zalando came next with a market share of 8.3 percent, followed by Amazon with 7.7 percent, Karstadt with a share of 4.6 percent, SportScheck with 4 percent, Sport 2000 with 3.6 percent of the market and Decathlon with 2.8 percent.
Intersport Germany currently oversees a big network of 1,823 stores in its five markets, including 1,455 stores in Germany, 290 in Austria, 32 in the Czech Republic, 13 in Hungary and 33 in Slovakia.
It is evidently tougher for the N° 1 player in the market to grow further. While the sales of the Intersport retail members in Germany increased by 3 percent on an absolute basis in the first five months of 2019, the affiliated members' sales grew by 9 percent in Austria, by 4 percent in the Czech Republic, by 2 percent in Hungary and by 14 percent in Slovakia. On a comparable store basis, sales went up at similar rates in Germany and the Czech Republic. The growth rates were different in Austria, up by 6 percent; in Hungary, up by 7 percent; and in Slovakia, up by 13 percent.
Sales of outdoor products, which account for more than 20 percent of Intersport's total sales in the same five markets, increased by 6 percent in the first five months of this year. Sales of fitness products, representing almost 20 percent of total sales, grew by 8 percent, while the winter sports segment, which accounts for more than 20 percent of sales, rose by 11 percent. Thanks to the weather, January was a particularly good month with a sales increase of 14 percent year-on-year.
The running category, which represents 10 percent of sales in the five markets, increased by 8 percent, racquet sports by 6 percent and the bike segment by 9 percent. Sales of team sports products decreased by 7 percent, in the aftermath of last year's Fifa World Cup, while water sports declined by 16 percent because high temperatures had led to higher sales in this segment a year ago.
Intersport is aiming to restructure the format of its stores in line with two different store concepts in the future. Focus categories will be outdoor sports and urban sports. The urban sports shop concept will cover running and training as well as the athleisure segment. Both concepts will also include winter sports and special product categories such as racquet sports.
The cooperative has already started to work on the prototypes of the first pilot stores. In order to support the introduction of the new focus categories, Intersport will launch three new marketing campaigns in 2020. The first campaign, which will concentrate on fitness, will run in January and February. The campaign around running will start in March, followed by a campaign for the outdoor segment in the late summer and the autumn. All the campaigns will feature online marketing, point of sale support, print advertising, various events as well as some TV advertising.
The ranking of Intersport Germany's ten leading suppliers of outdoor products saw some changes in the first months of the year. It was topped by Lowa, CMP and Meindl, followed by Schöffel and Mammut. Ortovox jumped from the ninth spot to the sixth one, while Jack Wolfskin moved down by one slot and Deuter by two spots. Icepeak remained in eighth place. Vaude cracked the top ten, moving up by two spots from number 12.
Intersport Germany expects its sales in its five markets to increase by 2-3 percent in 2019, as compared to 2018. Sales in Germany alone should be stable or increase slightly. As usual, bigger growth is forecast in Austria.
