Connect Store Expansion
Making a big impact on mass market with a marketing budget of 2% of turnover for an emerging brand is tough. Acknowledging the business ambition of increasing physical footprint across our key market of Sydney, and combining it with our relatively small marketing budget, we decided on a new retail concept for Decathlon. Small format “Connect Stores” in high foot-fall urban locations would introduce the brand to entirely new audiences, and have a significantly higher return on investment than traditional ATL approaches which were too expensive for our investment level.
Rather than simply opening mini versions of our warehouse-like stores, the challenge was to create smaller-format destinations that functioned as both profitable retail spaces and powerful branding assets.
Working cross-functionally across retail, commercial, digital and global teams, I led the marketing strategy and customer launch planning for multiple Connect Store openings, ensuring every location delivered a consistent brand experience while responding to the unique needs of its local sporting community.
Strategy
Retail Marketing
Customer Experience
Project Management
Local Marketing
Strategy Retail Marketing Customer Experience Project Management Local Marketing
The Context
Decathlon’s traditional warehouse -style stores relied on destination shopping which was popular in European locations of the brand. Add to this the fact that many Australians had never heard of the brand, strong local competitors existed in our oligopolistic market and our brand awareness in our key catchment was just 36%. To increase awareness and traffic to stores with a relatively small marketing budget, the business introduced a new concept of Connect Stores - compact retail formats positioned in premium, high-traffic locations designed to capture attention and sales.
Each new store represented far more than another point of sale. It was an opportunity to introduce the Decathlon brand to an entirely new customer base, strengthen brand perception, and create long-term commercial growth within strategic catchment areas.
The Insights
A retail store is one of the most powerful marketing channels a brand owns. Global research by Havas CX showed that 59% of people would not repeat purchase from a store that did not meet their expectations, and we had one shot to make a first impression on the millions of Aussies who were to walk past our new shopfront locations.
We used existing first party data from online sales, along with catchment market research and traffic data to identify key locations that for our ideal consumers work, shop and live. Additionally we commissioned a survey for our existing customers on where would be convenient for them to continue to shop our new smaller-format concept.
Rather than relying on paid advertising or discount pricing to buy attention and build our brand awareness, every one of our Connect Store needed to act as a physical brand experience - attracting new customers to convert to a sale, opt-in and become members, and support our ecommerce in an omni-channel strategy.
We knew that success wouldn't come from selling products as a one off - it would come from creating excitement before launch, delivering a seamless customer journey once inside, and embedding the store within its surrounding neighbourhood long after opening day by partnering in a meaningful way with the local sporting community.
The Execution
I led the end-to-end marketing and customer experience planning for each of our 7 Connect Store launches during my time at Decathlon from pre-opening strategy, to opening project for brand, visual merchandising and customer journey, along with post-opening campaigns to engage local communities. I partnered closely with commercial, operations, retail and digital teams to ensure every customer touchpoint lived up to our standards.
This included:
Developing hyperlocal launch marketing strategies tailored to each specific catchment to connect physical retail with the local community in a meaningful way.
For example our city CBD stores we built a run club community with 200 corporates and locals, 30 free fitness and pilates classes across the city, and a picnic Petanque kit customers could borrow for free to get outside and moving with colleagues in their lunch breaks.
Our beachside Bondi Beach and Manly Beach stores had free surfboard hire, kids activities like face painting and free sunscreen and filtered water stations in store.
Each campaign built relationships with local community groups,, sporting clubs and partners to establish each store as part of its neighbourhood. For example for our Manly store we partnered with Manly Nippers club to provide free sun protection tops, hats and other beach essentials to volunteers and 400+ families.
Briefing, guiding and managing internal and external store design, customer journey and visual merchandising and localising global brand assets and retail guidelines for Australian audiences.
Aside from physical presence, I created integrated campaigns that connected physical retail with online channel to maximise awareness and traffic. We retargeted through digital advertising, built up automations in our CRM, sought hyperlocal PR and media, and social media UGC partnerships.
Throughout the project I worked closely with store leaders, ensuring marketing activity aligned with commercial priorities while maintaining consistency with national brand strategy.
The Impact
The Connect Store project established a scalable retail marketing model that combined commercial performance with long-term brand building, and is now being rolled out across the globe in other Decathlon countries like Singapore, Korea, France, Spain, Italy and more.
Beyond successful store launches, the project strengthened collaboration between marketing, retail and commercial teams, creating a repeatable framework that could be applied across future locations.
Most importantly, each new store helped introduce millions of Australians to the Decathlon brand through memorable first impressions and locally relevant customer experiences.
With this strategy we saw:
Total foot-traffic past all 7 Connect Stores is estimated at 54 million people per year.
Brand awareness grew from 36% in 2023 to 63% in 2025 (Kantar)
7 successful opening projects, with hyperlocal campaigns for each engaging the local community in authentic ways.
11 media publication placements for opening campaigns, including top tier syndicated media.
11 UGC ambassadors local to store catchments.