Russia’s largest sporting goods retailer, Sportmaster, has unveiled plans to expand into cities with populations of up to 100,000 with a new store format. Sergey Agibalov, Sportmaster’s business manager, told the Russian Business Consulting agency that the new format would serve as an element of its omnichannel development strategy, in which offline sales will be complemented by e-commerce.
Currently, Sportmaster operates conventional stores with a sales area of between 1,200 and 2,500 square meters and hypermarkets (under the name Sportmaster Pro) with up to 5,000 square meters. The stores under the new format are between 300 and 500 square meters in size. As Agibalov explained, several of these new stores have already been opened in Alexandrov (Vladimir region), Kirishi (Leningrad region) and Budennovsk (Stavropol region). The initial results of the concept have been deemed successful, and Sportmaster is currently in the process of finalizing the new format, Agibalov said.
Agibalov said Sportmaster is interested in up to 300 small cities and towns. The basic assortment in the new format will be reduced in favor of the most popular goods. The stores serve to familiarize customers with new brand styles, and customers can place an order from the network’s entire range at any time via an online store or mobile application.
Sportmaster plans to open 50 stores by 2022, 30 of which will be small-format stores. The retailer currently operates 450 stores in 220 cities. In addition to its main brand, the company is developing Urban Vibes multi-brand sports footwear stores, operates the Columbia and Skechers franchise networks in Russia and has been developing its own Demix mono-brand chain since 2018.
