The Decathlon Store Manager, Stevenage branch, contacted Striking Places to request a quote for a 3D virtual tour. We like to know as much about our potential customers as possible, so we looked them up. After some online research, this is what we found.
Decathlon, Europe’s Nº1 Sports Retailer, was founded in 1976 in Lille, France with one main mission in mind:
‘…to make sport accessible to as many people as possible.’
The first UK store opened in Surrey Quays in 1999, they now have 44 stores in the United Kingdom. Their global presence covers 46 countries. And they have some fantastic expansion plans. Spreading the word about the value Decathlon delivers to its customers is vital to their success. As a company, their mission is to continue to give expert advice and provide a seamless shopping experience in more and more countries.
Throughout the network, Decathlon’s belief is that being active and discovering new ways to accomplish more activity every day is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Because of this that they continue to help, inspire and guide people developing their experiences with sports and fun activities.
Decathlon’s mission is great news for us, isn’t it?! Mostly because their equipment and clothing support health and wellness for people. People who would like to do almost any kind of physical activity. But also because their range of products seem to be great value for money; thereby making a wide variety of activities that require equipment accessible to most people. We couldn’t help window shopping while we were photographing. If you’re interested to find out more about the history of Decathlon there’s more to read on their about Decathlon website page.
Striking Places worked with the new Stevenage store to put together this fantastic virtual tour. The tour highlights just how much value Decathlon has to offer and the massive diversity of sports they represent! From rugby to running, hiking to horse riding, they’ve got you completely covered. They are the go-to business if you want to explore new activities to keep you fit and healthy.
Firstly, commissioning a virtual tour of the store to advertise their retail outlet more widely online will show many, many more people what a fantastic range of products is available. In turn, this will remind people of the store and all those products they’ve meant to buy. Showing people isn’t the only benefit. As you’ll see, there are many photographic marketing goodies associated with the 3D virtual tour package, including social media taster videos and high-quality 2D static images. There are also add-on features including built-in guided tours, interactive hotspots, and photographic highlight reel: a visual feast of imagery delivered in a professional and timely manner. So secondly the team has a wealth of photographic assets to use in their marketing activity for quite some time to come.
To reach their target market with the virtual tour Decathlon will embed the virtual tour on their website, thus enabling website visitors to experience the store before they buy online or visit in person. The store’s team can also share the link on social media and even use some of the content in their newsletter, reaching the broadest possible audience.
A further bonus of a 3D virtual tour is that it can be published by a Google Trusted Photographer to Google Maps Street View, enabling it to gain even more digital traction. Shortly after publication, Google Street View inside appears on Google Maps Street View, in search results, and also on Google Earth. Visibility on Google Maps enables the retailer to boast about their interior to more and more people with every click. The imagery Decathlon commissioned will appear in their Google My Business listing and be shown to people searching online for their store in their Google Knowledge Graph or Panel. For example, see the example below.
Decathlon Stevenage Knowledge Graph or Panel
Google Street View inside is an investment that just keeps giving. As it’s a Google product delivered by a Google Accredited Photographer, the imagery is shown readily to people who are searching on Google for that category of business. We use the Street View app to view the imagery we’ve shot and can see the number of times each virtual tour has been viewed. Over to the left, you can see a screenshot of Decathlon’s views just 4 months after publication. Highly impressive numbers!
If you have a Google My Business Virtual Tour inside why not ask your Google Trusted Photographer for the number of views on your photos?!
Asda supermarket in Stevenage houses Decathlon. So, it was critical to arrange the shoot to avoid deliveries and customers. With the team, we selected a time when the store had been professionally cleaned and fully stocked. It is also crucial to schedule the shoot at a quiet time to ensure the virtual tour clearly shows all the businesses products without the distraction of people in the shot.
Shooting the tour took approximately 2 hours. We worked around a new stock delivery towards the end of the job. The first part of the virtual tour was published later that afternoon, enabling the store manager to advertise the store on social media the same day. Once the virtual tour was published, additional features were created and added.
To see more about both what Striking Places and Decathalon do, take a look for yourself virtually. Decathalon’s Stevenage store is located just off Monkswood Way, should you wish to drop in. Free parking is available; if you’re looking for anything to improve your physical activity, you won’t be disappointed!
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