Puma leaps onto all channels – Tradebyte interview with PUMA

PUMA – with a 4.6 billion Euro turnover in 2018 and 14,700 employees it is one of the biggest sports brands in the world. A traditional company that has been a player in the marketplace business for a few years now.

At the PUMA headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Andreas Lotz, Head of the Marketplace Management eCommerce Europe team, and Felix Jahn, Head of eCommerce Europe, talked about the state of the marketplace business at PUMA, the development of e-commerce within the company and deciding on Tradebyte for middleware.

Tradebyte: In addition to the existing marketplaces, PUMA has just gone live on different international About You channels via Tradebyte. Could you tell us something about that?

Andreas: Of course we would like to be present on all the important European players of the marketplace business. An aspiring marketplace such as About You is a perfect match for PUMA. Here are a few other examples: A top dog such as Zalando is indispensable and, as the biggest online vendor in the world, Amazon also ranks amongst the important marketplaces for us.

We always hear talk about cannibalisation, meaning that the brand shop and the platform appearance steal customers from each other. How does PUMA experience that?

Andreas: In our experience the entire brand is profiting, but also www.puma.com, as soon as we go live on a new marketplace. The end customer also profits from that in the end, as more PUMA products are available on different channels. We believe that the entire marketplace business will expand dramatically in the next few years, as the behaviour of end customers is continuing to develop in that direction. From our perspective, it’s clear that consumers value the surfing experience and the mixed shopping trolley on marketplaces as this increases the selection and the inspiration.

»From our perspective, it’s clear that consumers value the surfing experience and the mixed shopping trolley on marketplaces as this increases the selection and the inspiration.«

E-commerce is still relatively young at PUMA, just like in many companies, but will it play a leading role in the future?

Felix: As a traditional company, PUMA has the same challenges as many other players in the sports industry. Digital transformation is in full flow, and of course we from e-commerce play an important role within the company. We have started many changes and try to promote this in compliance with the overall strategy. In a big corporation there are of course obstacles, but the further expansion of e-commerce is going in a good direction.

»Digital transformation is in full flow, and of course we from e-commerce play an important role within the company.«

We’re very happy that you, Felix, will be on our panel at the ECD in Munich on 21st May. At the Internetworld EXPO you also had a presentation together with Tradebyte on the relationship between brand and platform. How do you feel about our partnership and why have you decided on the collaboration with Tradebyte as a connector?

Andreas: About a year ago we decided that we needed another data integrator. We looked into several offers intensively and created a balanced scorecard. The result was that Tradebyte is the right partner for PUMA. And, of course, subjective points also play a role. The transparency at Tradebyte convinced us right from the start.

Felix: I very much like the collaboration between Tradebyte and PUMA for several reasons. You’re an established player in the market and have clearly built efficient processes, which enable us to place large product ranges live on many marketplaces as quickly as possible. Thanks to the transparency, which your systems offer, my teams could quickly develop ownership of far-reaching processes and therefore control the business immediately. The marketplace business is growing very strongly year after year, through the connection to new marketplaces, but also through expansion into other countries. We’re looking forward to working together with Tradebyte to drive both of these developments forward.

»You’re an established player in the market and have clearly built efficient processes, which enable us to place large product ranges live on many marketplaces as quickly as possible.«

Thank you for these complimentary closing words, the invitation to the PUMA headquarters and this exciting interview.