TradeINN: leading sports e-commerce retailer

TradeINN has reached its turnover target for 2023 with a turnover of more than 500 million euros, which means a growth of 15% compared to the year 2022. "The year 2023 was challenging due to the global context. The increase, for example, in transport costs (which shot up by 40%) affected us especially in markets outside Europe, where we had a 5% drop in turnover. However, we have compensated for this with sales in Europe," explains David Martin, CEO and founder of TradeInn, "The truth is that we are very satisfied with the final result, both in terms of turnover and company profit, which is 10% of turnover.

But, said the CEO, the increase in transport costs has made companies specialising in logistics even more important. "In this sense, we could highlight Spring GDS, with whom we have had a real partnership for many years. We have jointly opened markets in remote countries, and we have also optimised lines closer to home in Europe. For example, a couple of years ago, Brexit created a lot of uncertainty in the e-commerce sector, especially in terms of logistics. Spring offered us a solution that allowed us to continue selling from day one, and to take advantage of this situation to continue growing in this market, as many e-commerce companies had stopped selling to the UK because they didn't know how to do it, or didn't have a partner to accompany them through this change".

Having reliable partners is essential when you reach the figures TradeINN has reached: 25,000 orders per day, 8 million packages, 150 countries. This says it all. "The logistics part is essential in the whole process, and it is part of the service we offer. We differentiate what are simply suppliers from partners. With the volume we achieve and to maintain these growth figures we need to maintain an open and direct dialogue and, therefore, trust is essential. For us, a partner is someone with whom you can sit down and discuss the best options, experiment with solutions, analyse the market situation and be willing to take on the challenges that come with being ahead of customer requirements," says David Martín.

Emiliano Vidal, Managing Director of Spring GDS Spain, said: "Spring GDS is proud to be considered as a partner by TradeINN. We have achieved this thanks to the trust that David mentioned and the efforts of each one of us, so that if there are any difficulties, we can find a solution and prevent the chain from coming to a standstill". David Martín corroborates this. "We have experienced this during strikes, changes in marketplaces, or at times of sales peaks above forecasts: the operations teams are in permanent contact seven days a week. It is important to work with partners who keep up with us, with 24/7 operations. Consumers in the UK don't care if it's a holiday or not in Spain, they expect their purchase to be handled as quickly as possible.

As mentioned, TradeInn is currently serving more than 20 million customers in 150 countries, in both hemispheres, and has 18 business verticals. This results in a high turnover in demand for different sports products, so there is no one time of the year when sales are far in excess of another, but are constant, voluminous and growing. "For example, the high temperatures of the last few months have had an impact on product typology: winter sports gave way to other sales drivers such as cycling (BIkeinn), mountain sports (Trekinn), as well as the new vertical that embraces several disciplines (+Sports), such as golf or horse riding. And given the good performance they have had, we do not rule out the possibility of converting the latter into a specific vertical if these sports become very popular", says David Martín.

In this way, and to handle this volume every year, beyond external logistics, i.e. transport, it is necessary to work hard on the internal logistics part: measuring the management time of each order, working to avoid warehouse incidents, investing in systems and robotisation of the chain... And, obviously, in surface area. "This year we expanded our central platform in Celrà (Girona) from 35,000m2 to 50,000m2. We want this investment to be operational by 2025. In addition, a year ago, we opened a logistics centre in Germany, in the town of Pulheim (near Cologne), which we opened with Spring GDS. In the coming months, we will expand this centre from 3,000m2 to 6,000m2. This expansion will allow us to be more agile in the management and shorten delivery times in Germany and neighbouring countries from which we cover deliveries", concludes the CEO and founder.

www.tradeinn.com

TradeINN has 18 business verticals and transacts 25,000 orders per day, 8 million parcels per year to 150 countries in both hemispheres.

"Having reliable partners is key. We could highlight Spring GDS, with whom we have opened markets in remote countries, and optimised lines in Europe".

For TradeINN, one of the keys is investment in technology and big data. In our sector, people are looking for price, not just brand. I would even say that price is more important. TradeINN is not the only platform to offer sports products and, for this reason, we put a lot of effort into analysing competitor prices: every three hours we analyse more than 40 million prices with our own algorithm, based on business criteria that allows us to change the prices of thousands of products in real time. A small price change can mean that you sell 80% more or less of a product.