Decathlon is leading the Indian market with the highest revenue overtaking Adidas, Nike in sports gear retailing. Decathlon has also become India’s second-largest single-brand retailer in March 2018.
Decathlon opened its first cash-and-carry format and wholesale store in 2009 in India. However, it got approval for single-brand retailing in 2013 and changed its business model from wholesale to retail. The company has expanded its business 10 times since then by adding more than 50 stores.
The brand has emphasized awareness on fitness and it has lower-end price positioning and targets customers who see value-for-money as more important than brand image.
In doing so, one of the leading sports brand Decathlon appeals to a wide range of age groups, and more to participants in sporting and outdoor activities, as opposed to consumers buying sportswear as a fashion statement.
Decathlon prices 30-40% lesser than competing brands products. Decathlon controls almost every bit of operations by selling only private labels, from pricing and design to distribution, and keeps its costs and selling prices low. Decathlon uses a combination of in-house manufacturing and outsourcing to stock its shelves.
Not only focusing on making cricket merchandise, but Decathlon also caters to 70 sporting discipline as the appetite for non-cricket sports are increasing in India. Over the past few years, India has demonstrated an increasing appetite for non-cricket sports, such as kabaddi, soccer, volleyball, hockey and badminton.
The country now hosts professional leagues in most of these sporting disciplines, drawing participants from across the globe.
