BENGALURU: Sporting goods manufacturer Decathlon India has launched a new at the city’s Eva Mall, which provides customers a ‘phygital experience’ – an innovative mix of physical retail and digital touch points. The thought behind it is for the customer to have a fun and immersive shopping experience that adds value to otherwise just merely purchasing their favourite sports gear. They can now do so much more simply, without needing to ask for assistance.
With an interactive map located at the entrance of the store, users can quickly look up products they want to buy along with directions to where it is located in the store.
Its ‘Scan and go’ feature offers users a smooth, quick and easy checkout process with no assistance, as they can use the self-checkout kiosks to pay by different mode of payments such as scanning through phone or their credit and debit cards and be billed for the same.
Decathlon offers over 5,000 products across 50 sports. Living up to its motto of ‘Sport For All – All for Sport’, this ‘phygital’ store is for any level of sports enthusiasts. Through its ‘Test Zone’, shoppers of all ages are encouraged to try their hand at a new sport with football, basketball, cricket, cross training and rock climbing being the options offered. This helps them determine their proficiency levels and what does it take for them to improve at it.
Decathlon’s ‘Virtual reality zone’ showcases the entire range of products in the store through the virtual reality technology which will enables user to experience outdoor equipment such as camping tents across various terrains such as mountains, beach, forest and different weather conditions to experience the features of the tents. This will help them make the best decisions to purchase a product, since the company believes that they must be a worthy, long-term investment for a user.
Through the phygital experience, Decathlon claims the larger aim is to play its part in developing a strong sporting culture in the country by enabling customers with sports advice through educating them on how to learn a new sport and connecting them to coaches to improve their game with the correct advice and guidance. It offers a playground and a platform for users to find a facility nearby or events to practice the sport of their choice.
In another first, the store also features a dedicated meet-up area called Decafé which is meant to create a sport conducive environment for like-minded enthusiasts to connect over workshops, classes and events focussing on sports, health and nutrition or activities like yoga, meditation and concentration all within the confines of the store. The café will provide a mix of healthy salads, sandwiches, and drinks, promoting a healthy lifestyle and living. Additionally, the café also screens all kinds of sporting events like kabaddi, hockey and also cricket matches.
Decathlon’s management team comprises of sports and fitness lovers, who wish to share their vision and passion of embracing a physically active lifestyle. This is said to be the inspiration behind the idea. Their focus is expected to be on this store for the time being to deliver the best ‘phygital experience’ to their customers.
Speaking on the launch of the store, Pierre Digbo, head of Decathlon Bengaluru, said: “Decathlon’s vision is to inspire over 1 billion Indians to try or discover different sports and encourage users to re-engage and play their favourite sports or pick a new one. Our new store format aims to create an engaging and memorable shopping experience that removes any inconveniences users face while shopping such as being unable to find or locate a product in-store. At the same time, Decathlon Eva Mall much like our future stores provides a sports platform that allows users to experience or learn a new sport and connect and interact with other sports enthusiasts. The Decathlon Eva Mall concept store is inspired by our vision to ‘make sports accessible to many’ and further solidifies our continued dedication to this vision.”
