When you break-down the revenues of a 5 a side center you discover that the contribution from merchandising sales is almost irrelevant. Why is this so? There is a direct correlation between awareness, interest, and action which should work for football gear in the same way it works for energy drinks. Gatorade sells more in a sports club than in a regular bar…the question is why 5 a side trainers don’t sell in a 5 a side venue as well as in the shops?
We need the right vehicle to express the potential of merchandising and product sales in a 5 a side club.
This is what the manager of Futbolclub in Rome did 5 years ago when he realized that his shop did not perform as expected. His approach marked a revolution in the layout of the club’s reception halls which is still unknown to most of the players in this business.
M. Tommasi, a pioneer in the 5 a side business in Italy, simply replaced the reception hall with a state-of-the-art shop and convinced Adidas to brand it. When the players were forced to pass through the shop to enter and exit the club, sales exploded and reached nearly 40% of the total turnover of the business.
Besides that, the overall club’s sales grew as well due to the fact the sport shop clerks made much better salesmen that the receptionists that used to help the customers in previous years when the reception hall was separated from the shop.
We learned that it is far more profitable to run a 5 a side club inside a sports shop than a sports shop inside a 5-a-side club.
Nike has replaced Adidas now and the shop is continuing to do big numbers.
WSBSPORT has recently advised Monclub 2.0 in Marseille and 5 Factory Shanghai. Both have signed “Shop in shop” agreements with Adidas and Nike by presenting them this layout concept as a way to reverse the marketing paradigma: we don’t ask you for money to sponsor the club, we give you an opportunity to increase your sales.