Decathlon joins Bicycle Association’s Cycling Market Data Service

Decathlon has announced it will join the Bicycle Association’s (BA) new Cycling Market Data Service which will launch imminently.

According to the retail giant, it has a mission to, “make sport accessible to as many people as they can” and is now one of the largest sports goods retailers in the world, becoming a major player in the UK mainstream cycling market in recent years.

Peter Lazarus, UK Commercial Leader for Cycling at Decathlon, said: “Innovation is an important part of everything we do and having good consumer and market insight underpins our product and services development to ensure our customers’ sports experience is constantly improving.”

The BA’s new Market Data Service will provide essential insights to support the BA’s advocacy agenda with national and local government and will also provide retailers, manufacturers and brands with invaluable insights on how to develop their businesses.

BA Associate Director Simon Irons said: “We are delighted to welcome Decathlon into the Service. With our first reports going live shortly, we expect to have coverage of around 40% of the market from the beginning and this puts us well on our way to achieving 70% coverage by the end of the first year.”

The BA’s Market Data Service, launched in January, is an industry initiative to provide accurate sales data to the whole sector and will be free to independent bike shops contributing their data with a turnover of <£5m.

In February, Halfords Group confirmed that all of its cycling channels and brands, including Halfords, Cycle Republic, Tredz and Boardman Bikes, will participate in the Market Data Service. Retail giant Wiggle-CRC also announced its participation in March.

Retailers or brands who would like to participate in the service are invited to sign up online at https://www.bicycle-association.org.uk/market-data.