Retail insights from the sporting goods industry – Page 92
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Article
Karstadt Sports is integrated more closely with SportScheck
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (or Galeria), the new holding company formed in 2018 from the merger of the Galeria Kaufhof and Karstadt department stores, has decided that the management of its sporting goods business will move from Karstadt’s head office in Essen to the headquarter of SportScheck in Unterhaching near Munich. ...
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News briefs
Sportmaster managed to avoid staff cuts
In contrast with earlier reports, Russia’s biggest sporting goods retailer managed to avoid the threatened elimination of nearly 2,000 jobs from its payroll because of the retail lockdown introduced in Russia to slow down the spread of Covid-19. Roughly 1,800 Sportmaster employees found temporary jobs with some major Russian food ...
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News briefs
Temporary layoffs stop at XXL in Norway and Finland
A recovery in the demand for sporting goods products in Norway and Finland has led XXL to cancel all the temporary layoffs that it had announced on March 23 due to a considerable sales decline caused by the Covid-19 situation. Sales normalized in April and have picked up recently especially ...
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News briefs
Sports Direct blasts at delayed store reopenings
The Frasers Group, the British company formerly called Sports Direct International, announced on May 22 that it would continue to guarantee full payment of its employees’ wages in the U.K. through the end of this month, as it did in April, but it’s not sure whether it will continue to ...
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News briefs
Adidas launches reusable face mask
Adidas has launched its own washable face mask to help consumers battle the coronavirus pandemic. It is called Face Cover and is made from a soft and breathable material, using a minimum of 40 percent recycled content. Face Cover is not a medically graded mask nor a Personal Protective Equipment, ...
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News briefs
Alibaba anticipates a slowdown in sales this year
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, expects revenues to rise by about 27.5 percent to over 650,000 million yuan renminbi (€83,725.8m-$91,168.5m) in the current fiscal year after its top line rose by 35 percent to RMB 509,711 million (€65,647.3m-$71,487.9m) in the fiscal year ended on March 31. The company achieved its ...
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ArticleFoot Locker will convert about 35 Runners Point stores
As we had imagined in reporting the phaseout of its Runners Point banner in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the management of Foot Locker told investors on May 22 that only about 40 stores would be closed, while the others would be converted to the Foot Locker or Sidestep format. Between ...
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ArticleIspo measures the pandemic’s effects on sports retail
Ispo has released the results of a survey it launched on April 9 to determine the effects of the pandemic on European sports and outdoor retailers. Among other interesting points, the survey indicated that Covid-19 began to strike their businesses early, that many resorted to home deliveries and the internet ...
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Article
Facebook wants to become a shopping platform
In response to the current corona crisis with the worldwide closure of many physical shops, Facebook has started to integrate a shopping function into its main social network, as it has already been doing on Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, said in a livestreamed video on ...
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News briefs
Maynards to auction two Adidas pilot production facilities
Maynards Europe, the global liquidation and auction specialist, working in conjunction with U.S.-based Heritage Global Partners, are to sell the entire manufacturing equipment of two unique production lines established by Adidas. The facilities were previously a part of a pilot flexible-design manufacturing project, called Speedfactory, for small runs of custom-designed ...
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ArticleFoot Locker closes its German Runners Point chain
Confirming in part a report aired on a German TV channel, Foot Locker said it “intends to consolidate our Runners Point business into our other operations in Europe,” after a year-long assessment of its operations and the competitive landscape in Europe. The TV report said that all the remaining Runners ...
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News briefs
VF Corp. looks at virtual reality
VF Corp. is exploring virtual reality as part of its strong investments intending to become “hyperdigital.” Cemtrex has announced that it has received an order from VF to create a virtual reality (VR) application. The VR application, which is due to be delivered within the current quarter, aims to create ...
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News briefs
Nike stores are reopening
As of May 14, all of Nike’s owned stores and more than 95 percent of its partner stores in Greater China and South Korea were open, although some still have shortened hours. Store traffic there remains low, according to Nike, but overall retail traffic and conversion rates are rising and ...
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News briefs
Fedas fears big sales losses for sports retailers
The Federation of European Sports Retailers (Fedas) has developed a plan of action to improve the protection of employees, customers and particularly vulnerable persons in the retail sector from coronavirus infection. The concept was developed under the leadership of Peter Bruggmann, vice president of Fedas and president of the Swiss ...
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News briefs
Adidas pairs Covid-19 donations to exercise tracking apps
Adidas is launching the #HomeTeamHero Challenge to support the Covid-19 pandemic’s essential workers. For every hour of app-tracked exercise from May 29 to June 7 Adidas will donate $1 to the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund of the World Health Organization (WHO). The objective is to reach one million hours. The ...
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News briefs
Eagle Creek donates face masks to European retail partners
Eagle Creek, the producer of travel bags and backpacks from southern California, is donating thousands of face masks to independent retailers in Europe. From next week, the company’s European retail partners will receive 2,400 masks intended not for resale but for the staffs of retail stores, in order to minimize ...
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News briefs
Zalando’s off-price segment grows strongly
Zalando has opened a new outlet store in Mannheim, making a total of nine such off-price physical stores in Germany. The store covers 1,400 square meters. The opening was initially planned for April, but was postponed due to lockdown regulations in Germany, where only stores with a sales surface of ...
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News briefs
Zalando loses financial expert
Birgit Haderer will be leaving Zalando, the German-based e-tailer. In her position as chief financial officer, Haderer was closely involved in Zalando’s expansion. Previously working for Goldman Sachs, she set up and eventually led Zalando’s financial department. In 2014, she managed Zalando’s IPO, which, at a value of $668 million, ...
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News briefs
Decathlon Germany implements “Scan & Go”
Decathlon has started to offer a “Scan & Go” option in its German stores. It makes use of MishiPay mobile technology that allows customers to scan and pay for items by simply using their smartphones. The system thereby minimizes the contact with both check-out devices and the store staff. Customers ...
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ArticleCoronavirus slows Technogym’s sales, but home fitness rockets
Lockdowns and store closures hit Technogym’s sales in the first quarter, although this was partly offset by higher sales of home fitness equipment, as more people exercised indoors. The Italian company’s total revenues dropped by 11.2 percent from the year-ago quarter to €116.8 million, or by 11.9 percent in constant ...
