SportScheck, Germany’s leading specialty sporting goods chain, has launched its online and mail-order business in Russia. Stefan Herzog, the company’s managing director, points out that he does not feel concerned by the difficult climate of consumption in the country, nor by the fall of the Russian ruble.
The Munich-based retailer made, however, some adjustments in light of the challenging environment in Russia: For example, the chain slightly lowered the budget for the catalog and reduced the number of products and pages in the catalog as well as the circulation. Additionally, to accommodate currency exchange problems, the price points were adjusted significantly. Herzog declined to give figures on circulation, the financial budget or the price points.
Russia is the fifth country that Scheck is targeting after the German-speaking countries and, since November 2008, the Netherlands, with its mail-order and catalog offer. Both the online shop and the printed catalog are purely in Russian with the exception of the name SportScheck, which is in Latin writing. The catalog has some 100 pages compared with the 700 pages for the German main catalog. For the time being, Scheck sees the launch in Russia as a test and, therefore, due to the lack of precise figures on the local markets, it cannot give an accurate description of the target group. Herzog expects the Russian sporting goods market to grow between €7 billion and €8 billion in the next couple of years.
As in the other countries it covers, Scheck targets the sports enthusiasts in the upper and middle class of Russian society. Compared with the offer in the Central European countries, the product range for Russia has been adjusted in order to reflect the differences in the local market. For example, the range of outdoor products is significantly smaller than the offer for the outdoor-driven Central European markets. In terms of geography, while Scheck could not give hard figures at the moment, Herzog expects a strong share of consumers outside the big cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, because the brick-and-mortar business in those cities is by far stronger than in any other part of the country.
In the long run, SportScheck is looking at some presence in the streets of Russia as well. Herzog points out, however, that there are no precise plans for shop openings. Herzog prefers to wait until more is known about the company’s distance sales and the general economic development in Russia.
