When goalkeeping legend Francisco Javier Sánchez Broto set up the first Fútbol Emotion store in 2001, he had a plan: Start small, with a real store in the real world and grow online.
After a career that took him from his native Spain, all the way to Glasgow Celtic, Javier needed a plan for his retirement. When he informed his father of his big idea - to be a resource for goalkeepers - he had no idea how far it would take him. Fútbol Emotion1 currently owns 20 stores and ended 2018 with €21.5 million in revenue – with the aim of reaching €31 million this year.
The brand's business plan includes strong international growth online, the consolidation of flagships stores – including the new store in Madrid, which opened in 2018, and the opening of their second store outside Spain. How did they take their business up into the big leagues so fast? Sánchez Broto knew that to get there, he had to be more than a shop … he had to become a brand.
To grow, get to know your customers
Offering customers great products at competitive prices isn’t enough. You have to connect on an emotional level too3. With that in mind Fútbol Emotion created a hub for goalkeeping aficionados, where they could go for tips, information and advice. To keep things simple, they built this hub - known as the Locker Room - on their own, in-house. The Locker Room was soon posting articles daily, reviewing boots and kits, and interviewing professionals like Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris and Athletic Bilbao’s Iago Herrerín.
All this new activity helped them engage existing customers and reach out to new ones4. As Hector from Fútbol Emotion puts it, “We knew a lot about the people who signed up to the website. They only needed to use their email and then we asked for their birth date, or their favorite player.” As Locker Room became more successful, Fútbol Emotion grew. And grew.
Next step? Go social
Fútbol Emotion was creating lots of great content. Given the right social platform, the fans would share it. “The social channel is the best way to communicate our offers, our launches, but also to communicate with the customer5 . We talk a lot about football, not only with the aim of selling. It's difficult to measure how much people buy from that channel, but a lot of people now know our company for our videos.” It’s a how-to study in the power of content marketing: create material that has an emotional attraction and use the right platform to spread the word.
With DHL, our deliveries are in safe hands
All this effort would be for nothing if the goods weren’t delivered perfectly, every time. “DHL is the company to work with because it's the easiest way to ship everywhere. We need to give the customer the best service possible, with as much information before doing the order as possible.” Own an e-commerce business that’s gone international? Apply for a DHL Express account now.
As the vast majority of e-commerce customers prefer to pay in their own, local currency and wish to see the shipping charge as early as possible in the process, it's important to choose a courier that can plug into your own platform to provide these two assurances. After all, the right courier company doesn't just deliver your brand to the doorstep. Using DHL makes it easier for your customers to buy your products on your website, because the cost of delivery is always integrated into the user journey, rather than popping up as a nasty shock at the end. And, prices shown are always shown in the local currency.
So, as Fútbol Emotion found, if you're planning to take your e-commerce business international, it's very wise to partner with a company that makes it easy for your customers, wherever they live. Find out how you can enlist DHL Express to take care of all your global shipping requirements.
