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the continued popularity of cycling has made decathlon decide to make a big move. on september 23, a beijing business daily reporter learned that decathlon opened asia's first bicycle concept store in shanghai. compared with the previous large and miscellaneous supermarket-style stores, this independent store only sells bicycle-related products and services. "taking advantage of the good development trend of the cycling market, we provide consumers with more professional and comprehensive products and services." this is decathlon's explanation for the opening of the bicycle concept store. in other words, decathlon wants to get a share of the hot cycling market.

open independent stores

decathlon's first bicycle concept store in asia is different from the previous decathlon large supermarket concept. the store covers an area of ​​about 330 square meters and brings together a series of bicycles and related products such as van rysel road bikes and accessories, rockrider mountain bikes, triban city bikes, children's bikes, etc. the concept store also has areas for repair, maintenance, fitting, etc.

a decathlon official told the beijing business daily that the decision to open a bicycle store in shanghai is due to the company's optimism about the current development of vertical sports in china, and the hope to take advantage of the good trend to provide more professional and comprehensive product services and community activities.

over the past year, decathlon has made a lot of moves in the layout of cycling business in the chinese market. in may this year, decathlon introduced its professional road bicycle brand van ryse to the chinese market through the china international bicycle exhibition, and launched the rcr pro team version of ag2r la mondiale road racing bicycle priced at nearly 70,000 yuan. in addition, in early 2024, van ryse, a subsidiary of decathlon, became the title co-sponsor of the three french ag2r cycling teams, and the cooperation will last until 2028.

van ryse is a professional road cycling brand launched by decathlon in 2019. in march of this year, decathlon promoted brand renewal, and van ryse became one of the four professional brands established by decathlon, carrying the hope of decathlon's high-end transformation. decathlon management once revealed that "we hope to better enter the high-end market by deepening the development of three or four professional brands, thereby attracting more users. this is an important part of our brand strategy."

the price of van ryse road bikes is generally above 1,000 yuan, ranging from the mid-range of around 1,000 yuan to the high-end of 10,000 yuan. however, from the market perspective, van ryse is not as popular as other mid-range and high-end road cycling brands such as giant, xds, and merida.

ma gang, an independent retail commentator, told the beijing business daily that for decathlon, internally it needs to find growth points for its business; externally, the popularity of cycling is a good opportunity.

"compared with other sports segments, there is no leading brand emerging in the cycling field in the current chinese market. taking advantage of the current outdoor cycling craze, decathlon's efforts in cycling are also an attempt to be the first to break through in many market segments." cheng weixiong, an independent fashion industry analyst and founder of shanghai liangqi brand management co., ltd., added.

slowing growth in performance

decathlon has its own plans for investing heavily in the cycling field. according to the financial reports of previous years, the growth momentum of decathlon's sales has gradually slowed down in recent years.

from a significant growth of 21.3% in 2021, to a slowdown of 12% in 2022, to a year-on-year growth of only 1.15% in 2023, decathlon has fallen into a bottleneck of slowing performance growth. in this regard, decathlon explained that it was caused by the slowdown in global consumer spending, but this reason is obviously difficult to convince people inside and outside the industry. the industry believes that as a representative affordable brand in the sports market, decathlon's development is approaching the revenue ceiling, and transformation is imminent.

decathlon has long been aware of the transformation and has taken practical actions. in 2022, decathlon hired professional manager barbara martin coppola as decathlon's ceo. earlier this year, decathlon also poached zhang xiaoyan, the former head of lululemon's china brand, as cmo for china. with the changes in management, decathlon has also made adjustments at the strategic level. in march this year, decathlon renewed its brand, established four professional brands in nine major sports categories, and transformed itself into a high-end brand.

"decathlon has passed its golden stage of development. popularization and cost-effectiveness are both decathlon's advantages and the main reasons why decathlon is in trouble now. the consumption upgrade market for mass consumers is shrinking rapidly. decathlon must either move upscale or further downscale, with no middle ground. obviously, high-endization has become decathlon's choice, but it is not easy to succeed," added zhou ting, director of the yaoke research institute.

lack of influence in the high-end market

decathlon, which needs to seek new growth, saw that cycling was popular in the domestic market and consumption was rising, so a growth plan emerged for decathlon.

according to public data, from january to october 2023, the number of cycling notes posted on xiaohongshu surged by nearly 400%, with nearly 1.3 billion views. as of may 2024, there were more than 5.54 million notes when searching for the keyword "cycling" on xiaohongshu. according to the "2022-2023 global and china bicycle industry operation monitoring and consumer demand survey research report", the scale of china's bicycle market was 194.07 billion yuan in 2021 and is expected to reach 265.77 billion yuan in 2027.

with such a large market, it makes no sense for decathlon not to take a share. a decathlon official told beijing business daily that road bikes are one of the company's four major professional brands, and there are some corresponding commercial deployments in various countries around the world. for decathlon, it is more focused on the layout of mid-to-high-end cycling products, and this layout is based on the huge potential of the cycling market.

there are many people who want to have a piece of the pie, but no one can predict who will succeed. currently, domestic brands that are planning to enter the high-end cycling market in china include xds and phoenix, a veteran bicycle company. in addition, brands such as lightning, merida, and giant are stepping up their efforts to enter the mid-to-high-end cycling market. trek, which entered the chinese market in 2016, is also accelerating its store openings. in the past two years, it has opened more than ten stores in the chinese domestic market. philip, director of trek asia pacific, said in an interview with the media, "the chinese market has great potential. we want to create truly high-quality bicycle retail services. we also hope that retail stores can allow consumers to walk in and arouse their interest in cycling." at the same time, xds agents revealed to beijing business daily reporters that they realized that the cycling craze was an opportunity, and xds has promoted the company's transformation and development to reform its stores. according to tmall bicycle sales data, xds ranked first in transaction volume in the past 8 months.

it is one thing to have a big cake, but it is another to be able to eat it. in ma gang's view, decathlon is one of the world's largest sports brand manufacturers, with a complete product matrix and hypermarket and specialty store channels. however, in the high-end market, decathlon lacks influence and appeal.

"decathlon is already well-known in the sports and outdoor market, but only in the popular entry-level market. the product mix gives users the impression of entry-level mix. for mid-to-high-end product mix, they will look for domestic and foreign brands in other segments. however, in the relatively unfamiliar but well-known and newly emerging cycling segment, decathlon still has a chance to occupy a place by relying on its brand awareness and making good products," said cheng weixiong.

decathlon is determined to win the cycling market. zhao yuewu, decathlon north asia road cycling brand director, said in an interview with the media: "we conservatively estimate that there will be 100 million cycling enthusiasts in china by 2029, and the proportion of road bikes will be very high. this is a huge market opportunity."

beijing business daily reporter found that all brands of mid-to-high-end cycling bicycles are out of stock, and decathlon is no exception. on the xiaohongshu platform, many cycling consumers said that it takes two to three weeks to order a decathlon cycling road bike, or even a month. cycling enthusiast li qing told reporters that he wanted to order a decathlon rcr worth 40,000 yuan, but it has not arrived yet. the reporter found that many models of this bike are currently out of stock in the online flagship store.

beijing business daily reporter zhang junhua

image source: screenshot of official website