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Major global sporting events often prompt shifts in consumer spending due to an increased demand for affiliated products or merchandise. Indeed, shoppers feel inspired to take up new hobbies based on whichever sporting events are televised, leading to a surge in online searches and interest in sports-related clothing and equipment.
With the Paris Summer Games on the horizon, online retailers need to be prepared for a sudden spike in activity and increased product demand. To maximise the sales opportunities that the Games could offer, retailers should start preparations early and review their international sales strategies.
The significance of the Summer Games
The buzz of global sports events is often reflected in shopping habits. Plus, the widespread use of social media can cause trends to go viral which can also lead to spikes in searches and sales. Throughout the Tokyo Games in 2021, there was an increase in online search terms, compared to the years before, by consumers who grew a sudden interest in purchasing torch replicas and t-shirts.
Similarly, the sale of sports items during the Rio 2016 Games skyrocketed as boxing topped the list of the UK’s favourite sports. The London 2012 Games boosted the UK sports market by approximately 10 percent, with much of the economic growth taking place within the first week of the event.
Worldwide sporting events are therefore significant for retailers because they often lead to increased consumer spending in international markets as well as domestic ones. For example, a UK-based retailer selling specialist sports products may discover more interest in their products overseas compared to their domestic market if international teams are performing well in that sport.
Research conducted by social enterprise Better identified the UK’s most popular sports at the 2021 Olympic games based on online search terms. Outside of the classic ‘big four’ sports – rugby, boxing, football and golf – Better found that there was an average of 165,000 searches for mountain biking and skateboarding, 110,000 for fencing and 22,200 for volleyball. This is a potential audience for sellers to tap into.
Conversely, UK-based sellers should be looking to take advantage of the demand for items in other markets. For example, YouGov conducted a study ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Games, which identified Americans’ favourite sports and what they were more inclined to watch on TV. It found 43 percent of respondents listed swimming as their favourite event, followed by rhythmic gymnastics (39 percent), diving (36 percent) and volleyball (20 percent).
So, UK retailers that sell swimming, gymnastic, diving and volleyball equipment should make sure that they are selling and marketing to the US. By doing so, they will be able to adapt to market trends where their national team’s performance spikes interest in related products.
The challenges of cross-border sales
Expanding reach to a global scale can be a highly effective defence against falling local demand, so it should be a key part of retailers’ growth strategies. However, there are a number of hurdles that retailers need to consider if they are looking to sell their products internationally.
For example, retailers who wish to sell overseas from their own website, will need to alter the languages and currencies of each product landing page so that they are appropriate for each new market they wish to sell to. This includes deciding whether to continually update prices when exchange rates shift.
It is important that all language adjustments are uniform across the retailer’s website; from the onsite search engines and product categories to the site-wide banners and even individual product pages.
There will be continuous updates as sellers will need to repeat this process every time a new product is added to their site. This also applies to advertising campaigns, all of which need to be localised for each region and direct the customer to the appropriate website.
Even then, once the website’s content is updated for each region, the checkout process needs to be able to manage intercontinental web traffic. Of course, there are numerous tools and third parties which help with sellers with this, but this is still no easy feat. It will require a significant amount of time and investment and can prove costly when executed poorly.
