Omnichannel Lessons For Sports Brands

Sports brands are a fascinating group from a retail and – by extension –omnichannel perspective. We have a fair amount of experience working with sports brands from: Premier League teams to Formula 1 teams, as well as multi-brand retailers. Given our expertise, we thought we’d outline how to tackle the sector’s specific challenges. Ready?

Keeping Up With Demands

So what makes sports brands different from, say, high-street fashion brands? Certainly not return rates. Like any clothing product, return rates are sky-high compared with other products, with sizing issues being the primary driver. What’s different is that while fashion rolls around seasonal trends – particularly in countries with inclement weather (see Northern Europe) – sports brands see enormous peaks during  big sporting events or when a specific player moves teams (esp. in soccer).

Think about it, if Mbappe ends up leaving PSG and heads to another club, his fans go straight to the new team's site to buy a shirt. On top of that, something that high-street fashion doesn’t account for at all is personalization. Kits from any sport can have specific player names on them or be replaced with a name of the buyer's choosing.

At a technical level, how does that impact inventory? Well, if you have a few thousand product SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) representing all the products you sell, if you introduce even a small amount of personalization that is going to skyrocket your SKU database to hundreds of thousands of records in the blink of an eye.

To account for that, you need systems that scale with spikes in demand, like during the World Cup, and handle big jumps in inventory size whenever new personalization options are added. But, like any good brand, you want a seamless customer experience across your omnichannel operation: so what else is possible?

In The Moment

Imagine you're at a match, and you decide to buy a personalized Man City shirt. You get your phone out, drop a quick order and you get sent a QR code. You head to the stadium store at half-time, and a quick scan by a customer service agent brings your purchase to life. As you walk back to your seat, your new shirt in hand, the RFID tags are deactivated, giving you an unparalleled experience that is totally seamless.

For Manchester City, that is now a reality in their stadium store thanks to ORP: our Omnichannel Retail Platform.

But, as great as that sounds, there are inherent challenges that need to be considered. Most importantly, returns – non-custom returned stock needs to be moved to a virtual location until it’s processed back into stock – meaning the inventory stays up to date. When it comes to personalized items, you also need a way to recognize that the item can’t be returned.

With that said, problems like these have effectively been solved thanks to ORP. So if you’re looking for a better way to manage your orders and offer an improved omnichannel experience, then you need to learn more about it. As a starting point, read this. Whatever position you’re in as a brand or retailer, the spikes and dips of your industry don’t have to get in the way of how you run your omnichannel business – in fact, that might just carve out a nice path that you can follow to further growth and success.

Rather chat with an expert than read another blog? Get in touch with Wolfpack today to find out what ORP can do for your brand/retailer operation/omnichannel presence.

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