Decathlon rewards Romanian shoppers with Azure-hosted loyalty program built on ASP.NET

Decathlon is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world, active in 57 countries with more than 1,600 stores. In Romania, the sports retailer is present since 2009, having more than 28 physical stores plus the online platform, and reaching 1500 employees in 2021. Needing a more effective way to engage, retain, and reward its thousands of Romanian customers, the company turned to Azure and ASP.NET as the foundations for its loyalty program. Thanks to instant data available Decathlon is tapping into the key insights it needs to provide industry-leading service that keeps customers coming back.

“At Decathlon, our mission is to make sports accessible to the many” begins Cezar Nicolaescu, Data and Marketing Leader at Decathlon. “We offer clothing and sporting equipment for more than 80 different sports, covering all levels of practice.”

Decathlon wanted to drive loyalty and reward Romanian customers with purchase vouchers, on top of all the existing benefits offered to their customers. Yet, it lacked an effective, holistic solution adapted to the Romanian context. “Decathlon used to operate an international rewards program which was ceased in 2018. In 2020, we wanted to launch our own local solution that met the needs of Romanian consumers,” explains Nicolaescu. “We were already offering some essential benefits for our customer's satisfaction like one free bike overhaul in the first six months after the purchase, or 2 years warranty for all of our products, but we wanted to go one step further and reward our customers with discount vouchers, based on their purchases in our stores.”

Making the most of solution synergies

To bring its vision to life, Decathlon Romania worked with technology partner Zitec, building a mobile application for its new loyalty program. “We saved approximately 15 percent on development costs by using Azure as the foundation of the loyalty application, because we didn’t need to set up operating systems or runtime database infrastructure,” shares Paul Matache, Project Manager at Zitec. “When it comes to operating costs, there were considerable savings too. We estimate about 50 percent savings by operating this platform in Azure versus on-premises as we don’t need to worry about disaster recovery, availability, scaling or provisioning of resources.”

By leveraging ASP.NET, the sporting goods leader was also able to benefit from accelerated development. “Using the .NET framework on Azure, we sped up the development process and reduced infrastructure administration requirements,” explains Marian Diaconu, IT Director at Decathlon. “It also enhanced the platform’s security and scalability. The entire process of creating the app took about six months, most of which was planning. Development itself was the fastest part.”

"The entire process of creating the app took about six months, most of which was planning. Development itself was the fastest part." Marian Diaconu: IT Director, Decathlon

Putting the right data to work

Tailoring the app effectively to the Romanian market was one of Decathlon’s primary aims. To do it, the sporting goods leader needed to connect to the data lake stored in its French headquarters, extracting only the relevant customer information. “We used Azure Data Factory to import the relevant client transactions into our application,” explains Diaconu. “Then, we used the Azure SQL database in the Azure App Service for storage and analysis. Using the SQL database, Decathlon employees can easily answer to customer requests regarding their transactions, points, and vouchers, along with their statuses. They also have the option to generate points-based or voucher-based reports for certain periods.”

The app also integrates seamlessly with the Decathlon.ro website via API. “Information about points balances, vouchers, or benefits are available to customers on the website as well as the Decathlon mobile app,” says Nicolaescu.

Finally, Azure Identity Server acts as the identity manager for the entire solution, securing both web and API applications and authenticating users.

##A better experience for staff and customers “Following the launch on August 2020, more than 50 percent of our active Romanian customers are now enrolled,” Nicolaescu shares, underscoring how the program’s tailored use of data is helping drive real-world success. “That makes us one of the top countries in Europe in terms of loyalty program usage. Since the start of 2021 alone, we’ve increased the total number of customers enrolled by about 30 percent. Plus, the overall feedback from customers about the program has been very good. This shows the added value we’re offering.”

Apart from offering to the customers instant insights into their personal rewards and points balances, the Decathlon team can also tap into new levels of business insight with monthly dashboards and reports using information from the app. „We can see in real-time the usage rate of our vouchers and conversion rate of the loyalty points,” says Nicolaescu. “It gives us a clearer picture of how effectively the loyalty program is operating and what we can do to improve the customer satisfaction related to it.”

Decathlon’s teammates are also very satisfied with the solution. “The feedback we’ve had is very positive,” shares Alexandra Stoica, Project Manager of Decathlon’s marketing department. “Our teammates can now easily help customers see their points vouchers and let them know about other benefits. It’s been very useful and efficient.”

"Following the launch on August 2020, more than 50 percent of our active Romanian customers are now enrolled. That makes us one of the top countries in Europe in terms of loyalty program usage." Cezar Nicolaescu: Data and Marketing Leader, Decathlon

##Looking to the future Backed by over a year of success, Decathlon sees its loyalty program set to grow. “We’re onboarding more customers each day, which means we’ll need to grow our use of Azure,” shares Diaconu. “We’re also adding new functionalities constantly via API such as providing insights from our monthly loyalty reports for our financial department.”

The program’s success within the Romanian market has also led Decathlon to start the implementation of the program in Belgium and the Czech Republic. Teams from these two countries will partner up with Romanian colleagues to leverage the program effectively by tailoring it to the specifics of their home markets.

Nicolaescu is excited about the possibilities for the future. He also appreciates how Azure has helped the company leverage key data to improve the customer experience and drive deeper business insights. “The loyalty program is a great tool both for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones,” he says. “It’s been very effective in encouraging customers to continue shopping at our stores.”

"The loyalty program is a great tool both for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. It’s been very effective in encouraging customers to continue shopping at our stores." Cezar Nicolaescu: Data and Marketing Leader, Decathlon