Running and fitness retailer reveals record results
ONLINE running and fitness retailer, SportsShoes.com, is celebrating its seventh year of double digit growth, recording a turnover of £33.5m for the year, up from £24m.
The online family business, with its head office and warehousing in Shipley, Bradford, has seen its web traffic increase by 100% year on year and its sales grow by 40%.
Specialising in footwear, clothing and equipment, the firm stocks more than 9,000 products from brands such as Adidas, Asics, Nike, Saucony and Skins. After tripling the size of its warehouse space, SportsShoes.com is now a significant employer in the region, increasing its workforce from just 30 to over 100 in the past three years.
With over one million active customers, SportsShoes.com processes on average 18,000 orders per week, that’s enough pairs of trainers to shoe all the 6,500 athletes and officials who competed in the Commonwealth Games almost three times over. Furthermore, the firm ships to all but a handful of the 71 nations participating in the Games. This year, the company expects to process close to one million orders.
The growth in the market as a whole according to SportsShoes.com managing director, Brett Bannister, can be linked to the nation’s increased awareness of the importance of regular exercise, but he puts much of the success down to the fact that the firm has embraced the digital age.
“We’re on a mission to help our customers live a healthier life through sport,” he said.
“We have achieved some great success but what is important is that we have done this responsibly – one order at a time. It’s a simple concept, but should be the key objective of any aspiring businesses. We’ve matched excellent new customer acquisition campaigns with increased customer retention rates. We are delighted that people want to shop with us for the first time and proud if they come back and do so again.
“Whether a customer is venturing into sport for the first time, requires a pair of trainers to reduce the impact of road running or is looking for the latest trainer technology, our sales teams are our sportswear ambassadors, they are highly trained and understand each product’s specific attributes, how it will best perform and who it will suit.
“It will be interesting to see whether we record a spike in running shoe sales following the gold rush of the Commonwealth Games, especially with the athletics track bringing in a sizeable medal haul, including Yorkshire’s Brownlee brothers showing their dominance in the triathlon.”
SportsShoes.com has been listed in Internet Retailing magazine’s Top 500 Retailers Index, sitting amongst major retail players from Amazon to Zara. The firm has also been included in the London Stock Exchange’s 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain list.
