SportsShoes.com attributes launches and “high impact activations” to sales rise

SportsShoes.com saw an 11% year-on-year increase in turnover to £90 million in the 12 months to 29 February 2024, as it acquired 663,000 new customers over the same period.

The online Bradford-based running shoes, clothing and outdoor gear retailer has attributed the year’s strong performance to a combination of successful running shoe launches – including the Nike ‘Vaporfly 3’, Nike ‘ZoomX Ultrafly’, Asics ‘Nimbus 26’ and Hoka ‘Clifton 9’ – as well as “high impact” activation initiatives.

SportsShoes.com was involved in the delivery of more than 20 activation events over the 12 months, both in the UK and internationally – including having a “physical presence globally” at the Paris, New York, Boston and Tokyo marathons.

The retailer also “re-platformed” its UK and European websites to provide customers with a wider range of online retail features and benefits. They include enhanced user journeys with “increased levels of personalisation” across both product discovery and product advice.

Additionally, the retailer has also had success with its athlete ambassadors, including British distance runner, Emile Cairess, who will make his Olympic debut in Paris this year, and Imogen Boddy who last month broke the National Three Peaks Challenge record that stood for 45 years.

SportsShoes.com Managing Director, Brett Bannister, said: “We want to build upon the success of our product launches and activation events for both elite and casual runners. A great example of this was our hugely successful inaugural Podium Festival which we held in Leicester this March that was attended by 1,000 runners.

“We are also growing our international sales, particularly in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, and feel there is a clear opportunity to establish a premium online retail brand in our space in Europe and beyond.

“Our start for the first quarter of this financial year has been a strong one as we have maintained the momentum we built up over the previous 12 months.”

In January 2024, SportsShoes.com announced an exclusive retail partnership with community event network, Parkrun, supporting more than nine million registered park runners across 23 countries – the biggest retail partnership the company has secured to date.

Over the last three years, SportsShoes.com has invested £4.6m in its people, processes, technologies and facilities. That included the opening in May last year of a £2.5m, 10,750 sq ft “creative and tech hub” called U2. Located adjacent to the company’s warehouse facilities, it is home to 224 SportsShoes.com employees.

Bannister added: “Our investments have been made to provide the foundations for ongoing sustainable profitable growth.

“We also believe it’s no fun standing still, so we are always looking at what inventive ways we can come up with for everything we do, whether it’s a product launch, brand activation or sales promotion.

“We know that if we continue to deliver fresh and exciting ideas for our customers and brand partners the sales will look after themselves.”