Live Sports365 E-Retail Pvt. Ltd (www.sports365.in) is
India’s first professionally managed sports and Fitness Company. The group runs
one of India’s finest e-Commerce stores which offers more than 8000 products
from 100 brands, both national and international. Sports365 is your one stop
shop for sports equipment online. From badminton racquets, sports shoes and
apparel and cycling gear to fitness products like yoga mats and so on Sports365
is your one stop shop for sports equipment online. The institutional business
unit offers turn-key solutions in terms of sports infrastructure, apparel and
infrastructure to corporates, schools and colleges, sports clubs and academies,
residential properties, fitness centers and hotels.
Sports365 is the coming together of management professionals
with a passion for sports and accomplished sporting icons. (The leadership team comprises of Sekhar
Reddy and Mahesh Bhupathi.) We are also supported by Yuvraj Singh, Dipika
Pallikal, Lara Dutta and Pankaj Adavni who play a prominent role. We spoke with
Sekhar about this venture and here is an excerpt of our interesting
conversation.
First up, sports based e-Commerce is a fairly niche area in India. How
did the idea emerge?
The common denominator is our “unrelenting passion for
sports”. The idea actually germinated during one of our regular badminton
games. Having felt the need for such a company, as customers we realized that
it is an attractive business opportunity. What followed was a three month long
process of internal discussions and debates, sounding off the ideas with
experts and friends and some amount of business planning. The outcome was a
unanimous “go ahead” and then we started the boot strapping process.
How has the
experience been so far in this very exciting area?
We are about a year old and this has been the most exciting
time of our lives.
Our online sports store, www.sports365.in, offers more than
8,000 products covering almost all sporting disciplines. We have managed to
secure tie-ups with all leading international and national sports brands. Our
website user interface has received very good feedback from the customer and
this can be attributed to “Live Chat” feature on the portal, which allows
customers to interact with sports experts which aids them in making informed
buying decisions. This is also complemented by our comprehensive buying guides
for various products.
With 4,000+ active customers, the response has exceeded our
expectations. We have a very strong and active community on our social media
properties (Face book, Twitter, Blog). The innovative and refreshing promotions
that we conduct from time to time have garnered some wonderful feedback from
our customers.
On the institutional front, we have worked with close to 100
some marquee names like Intel, Accenture, Amazon, ISB, IIM Bangalore to name a
few. We offer comprehensive solution based models to each of our customers. For
instance, the School Partnership Program for which we are tied up with Nike and
the PACE Premier Academies and Clubs Enablement program. Our offerings to
corporates, schools and academies are centered on sports apparel, sports
footwear and sports gear that have been very well received.
What do you think are
the main challenges facing the segment today and how do you plan to address
them?
From our perspective there are primarily three challenges
that we face. Firstly, access to good quality sports merchandise outside metro
locations is a big challenge. To address this problem we offer shipping to the
6 lakh odd postal codes in the country with options like cash on delivery and
free shipping. We also make available 8000 products for a number of sports
disciplines across 90 brands. Secondly, customers have limited buying advice
and consequently this affects their purchase decisions. By incorporating a
“Live Chat” and buying guides for various products we aim to change this
scenario.
Lastly, affordability is another challenge customers face
today. Due to availability and supply constraints most of the sporting
merchandise is still being sold at steep prices. In order to mitigate this
problem, we work with our brand partners to source products at better prices
and ensure operational efficiencies which consequently get translated into
better, more affordable prices.
You have some eminent
names like Mahesh Bhupathi, Yuvraj Singh, Dipika Pallikal, Lara Dutta and
Pankaj Advani lending support to the company. What is the thought behind this
and how challenging was it to get them on-board?
Right from the inception, we wanted www.sports365.in to be a
“sports company run by the sports experts for the sports lovers”. To fulfill
this objective, it is important for us to have credible sports and fitness
personalities lending support to the business.
We wanted the enterprise to be a part of all aspects of
business and hence each of these sporting icons have a role in several aspects
like sourcing, vendor relations, customer engagement, planning and not merely
marketing alone. They are experts who understand sports as well as customer
needs as well as anyone can. In terms of tying up with these personalities, we
believe that it is our conviction and a genuine vision to promote sports which
has made this endeavor possible.
How do you see your
company growing over the next 2-3 years?
We believe that the mindset towards sports is changing as
our country is witnessing a “sports revolution” and we aim to capitalize on
that. To begin with, in the next couple of years we see ourselves as a dominant
player in the e-Commerce market. On the B2B front we aim to acquire 1000
institutional partners in the next 24 months. We would also like to create
credible business property around customer engagement and bring a range of
international products on our website that are suited to the needs of Indian
customers.