Mystery Shopping Assignment Introduction Decathlon is a French sports brand established since 1976. Over time, they have expanded and pushed the brand to a global presence to current times. It hosts a variety of sports gear, clothes, and gear. Currently in Canada with winter season almost over, the store in Scarborough that I visited has been recently opened. I went there to experience what Decathlon truly has to offer and try to understand their brand more and the image/identity they are trying to convey to customers. While at the same time, comparing it to a competitor of theirs known as Champs – a clothing brand that sells variety of sports retail and shoes. In-Store Experience Upon seeing the store sign, there is a poster showing 50% promotion off. That is a clear indication of trying to lure customers into buying their products. It also provides a more in-depth image about their market segmentation, being for people who are looking at price more so than brand. Furthermore, walking in, there is a huge amount of space as the customer enters by only showcasing a mountain bike. This huge amount of space indicates that while there is a lot of products and variety. They don’t have enough inventory to fill it up or try and do something with it, leaving it just barren. This indicates a lack of preparedness and maybe in the future they can try to fill up the space as well as optimize it better. A customer walking in would want to see the on-sale items first and not a random bike, it completely offsets a targets perception of what to buy or having a goal while buying it. This is completely off in terms of following the consumer decision making process while looking for a product to buy for their needs. As we moved to the left side of the section, Decathlon introduced their camping and hiking gear regarding shoes, and camping gear. They have categorized it based on pricing and size. In the following aisles, there were the same issues with having a huge amount of space between the aisles as if wanting to try and cover the huge amount of space they have and couldn’t find use of it. While categorizing their clothes by men and women with pricing ranging from 50 CAD to 150 CAD for the clothes. So, their customer-base targets anyone between having a budget to something that is more viable for long-term. Decathlon has placed all its shoes in the back of the store before having a whole entire section of workout gear with gym equipment on the side, categorizing based on gender and sizes to incorporate an easier option in looking at various designs. However, one question to ask is that upon going deeper, there will be more clothes and then go back to shoes and then finally go to a kid’s section. This sort of mismanaging categorization leaves the customers lost and serves no purpose. There was even more space in the back that Decathlon built a whole kid’s playground with that kid’s section, while this certainly uses the space and provides more depth towards the kids it begs to question why Decathlon would rent such a huge space having so much space. Moving on the right side, they have their cashier and categorize their clothes and equipment based on sports, at times having so little inventory leaving some of the columns empty. Another point to note is that hockey is so big in Canada, why would Decathlon put that section all the way in the back, it should be put more up near the entrance to try and showcase their hockey section that they can offer as its very easy to miss it unless you are looking for the hockey section. Competition Store Experience Champs is another store located in Scarborough, they have a smaller space given to them, but that isn’t considered a hindrance. It’s an American sports retail store, owned by Foot Locker as the parent company. I chose this company as a competitor is one that is selling the same sort of gym-like retail clothes and selling shoes. While Decathlon on the market caters more towards a wide amount of sports style brands and clothes, Champs is a competitor in that regard. However, Decathlon also focuses on selling gear and equipment for sports that Champs isn’t, which gives it an edge when promoting clothes and shoes for sports as such. This puts Decathlon’s pull for certain sports higher than Champs as well as prices as Champs have brands like Nike and Adidas as their products which are already huge brands for themselves – causing pricing to be expensive. Decathlon compared to Champs have their own brands with lesser-known suppliers. Going into Champs, they have a smaller space than Decathlon, but the moment you enter you see new arrivals or the on-sale items, this increasingly increases the chances of a customer wanting to buy something seeing products that are valuable be worth less than expected. At the same time, one comparison could be said is the aesthetic. Decathlon had a very cold, dark floor, no aesthetic just building feel, while Champs had a more wood-like interior with bright colors and bright lighting emphasizing the shoes they were selling and the clothes. Another point to note is that because Champs is a smaller store in size, it is easier to get customer service from an employee in having any questions regarding the shoes or clothes or asking for size related questions incase they want to find a bigger or smaller one. This makes the interaction more personal and makes Champ care for the customers while looking at Decathlon, it was so big there were barely any employees that would be able to help you in terms of customer service. Moreover, the products that were placed in both stores were also vastly different, Champs in Scarborough had known brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc. compared to Decathlon rely on their own brand name to represent unknown brands. This difference can showcase that Champs are just buying from known suppliers, but Decathlon get lesser-known suppliers/produce on their own and give the quality assurance through their name because of this they can offer products at a cheaper price than Champs in that regard. Online Experience Further looking on their online stores also show a different energy where Decathlon categorizes their products based on Male, Female, Kids, and Sports. Champs caters towards the same but adds Accessories and the brands as well as showcasing the sale. The other experience is that Champs lets the user have more options to customize and search for things they want to find based on their own limitations and wants, while Decathlon doesn’t have as many options in doing so. It’s seeming more of Decathlon giving a story and showcasing their products as an experience than truly selling their products online with their ad campaigns being on there or trying to have an image of a classy company with their clean look/sleek design of the website. However, Champs prioritizes the selling option – truly acting like an online store with trying to bring the products to the customers as quickly as they could. The online experiences are completely different for both companies, Decathlon seems to have a more vibrant and classy style, completely different from the in-store interior and showing the various styles and equipment looking fully well categorized and classy. While Champs seems to be just trying to sell the products because they are from known brands, they don’t have to show quality assurance as the brand of the clothes is already qualified with it. Conclusion Decathlon for its stores has various issues. The key one is the extreme amount of space they have, they could optimize it and use it by hosting events or putting more inventory/products there. Another problem is the aesthetic, it’s very dull and lacking and with a bit more interior design, even if it’s spacious it would feel like it would have a personality and people would want to come. The store categorization is weird and doesn’t seem to have been put much thought in with having the hockey section in a corner, putting the kids’ section all the way in the back, moving the sale items further deeper than expected. It is recommended that Decathlon cutback on the renting space, that way they can cut costs, be able to place their products more systematically and would even cost less when trying to interior design and add aesthetics to their store as currently as mentioned before its very dull. Their pricing is ok, there were barely any promotional aspects of clothing and shoes on the outside of the store. They can truly improve on that. With a smaller store, they can also have a better form of customer service and trying to truly get a personal connection like Champs would greatly help their brand image and bring in more customers.
