Since its launch in January 2022 Running Industry Alliance (RIA) has been going from strength to strength. Membership has now reached 225 Foundation members and 15 Alliance Partners, representing a wide cross-section of the industry.
RIA is now preparing for its first industry conference. The Running Conference (TRC) will be held at Holywell Park Conference Centre, Loughborough University between 11th and 13th December, and Sporting Insights will be presenting to delegates on Monday and Tuesday.
Insights into the running industry are a key element to help advance the sector in an ever-changing landscape, and Sporting Insights (formerly Sports Marketing Surveys), the Official Insights Partner of Running Industry Alliance, continues its preparatory work to launch the Running Market Intelligence Service which will be a vital contributor towards understanding the value of the Retail sector.
A specialist market research consultancy to the sports and leisure industry, Sporting Insights is establishing a service monitoring running sales through the UK running specialty retail channel, which is supported by Running Industry Alliance.
This exciting initiative will provide a monthly measurement of running product sold at brand and model level detailing the sales value, volume and stock in the market across the key running categories – footwear, apparel, wearable tech and accessories. The service is being funded by running equipment manufacturers and is supported by many of the leading specialty running retailers in the UK and also endorsed by Running Industry Alliance.
Plans to extend this to Ireland are being considered as part of the longer-term strategy.
Over recent months, Sporting Insights has been actively recruiting specialist running retailers who are able to provide their data through their EPOS systems to be part of this important project. In return for providing their monthly sales and stock data, the running retailers will benefit from free access to national monthly sales information, which will be delivered via a user-friendly, password-protected interactive dashboard.
Updated monthly, this will enable retailers to review their business against the rest of the running market across a range of reporting measures. All store data remains confidential, and data is aggregated with the retailers only able to identify and access their own sales details.
Rob Cobain, who leads Sporting Insights’ Market Intelligence team that is currently establishing market intelligence services in running and outdoors, and already operates the successful Bicycle Association Market Data Service, said:
“We have now developed a solution that will allow retailers to send in transactional level data. This level of data gives us the ability to visualise daily sales across categories, sub-categories and various product attributes. Alongside standard retail sales values we will also be able to perform more in-depth analysis such as product association or basket analytics, we will be able to combine 3rd party data sources such as weather conditions, which will enable us to provide more context to what is happening in the market.
The dashboard will be built using the latest technologies, allowing for a top line view of the market at a glance, whilst opening up new ways of visualising and interrogating the wealth of data available in the running industry.
We are currently asking retailers and brands to contact us, so that we can bring their data into the system and show them exactly how they are performing. Please get in touch with
Carolyn.barnes@sportinginsights.com or aneesaali@sportinginsights.com to discuss how participation can help you.”
Jonathan Midwood, Co-Lead of Running Industry Alliance and leading the project with Sporting Insights, commented: “Sporting Insights has a proven track record of operating market intelligence services for the sports industry, and they understand the value it can bring to retailers. Having worked in the specialty running retail market myself for over 23 years, I know the importance of understanding and interrogating the businesses sales as well as the importance of being able to observe key market data to benchmark how you are doing. Insights are important for the running retail sector as it helps to understand the true value and opportunity of the sector.”
“It will be great to get as many running retailers as possible involved in the Running Market Intelligence Service, as it helps reflect the true value and worth of the running market and will help them to steer their business with a global view. We at RIA are fully supportive of the project.”
To find out more about Sporting Insights, please take a look at their website or follow on LinkedIn
For further details about Running Industry Alliance, membership and all other info please go to www.runningindustryalliance.com and follow the LinkedIn company page.
Check out the Sporting Insights, RIA Official Insights Partner profile here
