Kettler is setting up an internet platform to create an international community of users who will be able to interact with each other for fitness workouts as well as with the company. It plans to build up a database of consumers by asking them to register for a warranty when they buy a new Kettler product.
It's part of a global “digital transformation” project being gradually implemented at Kettler, which remains the largest European supplier of home fitness equipment. It is also going to apply to B2B functions such as the management of reorders.
The digitalization process started in Germany several years ago, lending a “gamification” twist to fitness training with the introduction of a system that allowed end users to simulate a collective city ride on stationary bicycles in front of a screen, shifting gears the virtual terrain required. Kettler showed a more playful application of this system in video game at the recent Ispo show in Munich. It may soon associate itself with a partner brand in the running sector to offer an application for its treadmills.
The project is also at an advanced stage in France, where Kettler has successfully installed dedicated, space-saving corners in 50 Intersport stores where customers can order its equipment via iPads, getting it delivered to their homes. The application has led to a 45 percent increase in the sell-out of Kettler products at partner stores.
Olivier Pantel, a former Nike executive who became managing director of Kettler France two years ago, has also introduced the notion of category management, setting up a dedicated sales force for the sporting goods sector that is not responsible for garden furniture and other items made by the German company.
He has invested more in communication, for example by sponsoring an event in Paris last December, the Kettler Challenge, to raise money for research on children's cancer. As a result, the company's sales of fitness products in France grew by about 15 percent in 2014 and are expected to increase by a further 20 percent this year.
