We may recall that the buying group tried unsuccessfully some time ago to persuade its retail members to do business online through Amazon. Since Sept. 1, Sport 2000 Germany has been running a new online store called boardscout24.com. While the site is owned by the buying group, the sales are done through nine affiliated retailers who are basically specialists in snowboards. In order to decide which of the nine retailers can claim which sales, Sport 2000 divided the country into nine regions, defined by postal codes.
Jens Fischer, the group’s managing director, stresses that the head office will make sure that regular prices are respected by the participating retailers. From the beginning, 1,500 items have been offered at boardsport24.com. For now on, the offer is limited to snowboard hardgoods, footwear and apparel, but the intention is to extend the shop’s range to skateboarding, wakeboarding, kitesurfing and surfing by Summer 2010.
The cooperative enjoys marketing support through Google marketing as well as a printed catalog of 68 pages with circulation of 200,000 copies. The catalog, called “Snowboard Scout,” is backed and financed by the vendors and is distributed through the members’ shops and events as well as through direct marketing and as a supplement to special-interest magazines. As of this writing, the project is limited to boardsports dealers, and there are no concrete plans to extend the concept to other segments until boardscout24.com has proven successful.
Sport 2000 is going online in France as well, but for different reasons. Sport 2000 France has teamed up with a website specializing in close-out sales to help its members get rid of their left-over stock. Under the name of Dégrif’Sport, Sport 2000 has sealed a partnership with 2xmoinscher.com (meaning “twice as cheap”), a website launched in 2001 to sell both new and second-hand products.
Taken over in July 2006 by 3 Suisses International, 2xmoinscher.com is a highly popular site, with 1.6 million members and nearly 6 million unique visitors per month. Dégrif’Sport will use the same platform but it will sell only sports apparel, footwear and equipment, ranging from bicycles to tennis racquets, team sports equipment and much more. The partnership is meant to make it easier for Sport 2000 France’s retailers to clean up their inventories and refresh their offering more regularly.
