Specialist sports retail is changing. Consumers research online, compare products digitally, and find inspiration through social media – but purchases still frequently happen where expert advice, trust, and real competence are tangible: in brick-and-mortar specialist sports retail.
At the same time, increasing digitalization presents retailers with new challenges: visibility today needs to happen wherever customers are active – ideally without significant extra time investment on top of an already demanding daily business.
That’s why modern digital marketing solutions are at the heart of the retail service organization SPORT 2000 Austria. Together with socialPALS, SPORT 2000 Austria brings digital brand communication efficiently into brick-and-mortar specialist sports retail. The goal: digital activation and increased regional visibility through efficient processes, central management, and simple implementation – without creating additional complexity for retailers, but instead specifically lightening their daily workload.
In this interview, Maria Hemmen, Head of Marketing at SPORT 2000 Austria, talks about dealer marketing, digital activation, and why personal support remains important despite all the technology.
Maria Hemmen
Head of Marketing | SPORT 2000 Austria
Maria, could you briefly introduce yourself – what's your role at SPORT 2000 Austria?
I’m responsible for marketing at SPORT 2000 Austria, and together with my team, I focus intensively on how we can best support our retailers. That’s an especially exciting question at a time when consumer behavior and marketing are changing so much. Sport has been part of my life from the very beginning. I studied sports management and communication at the German Sport University in Cologne, then worked in various roles in the agency world before joining SPORT 2000 Austria in 2020. I’m particularly passionate about the combination of sport, retail, and communication, because expert advice in specialist sports retail creates enormous added value. The right running shoe helps you stay injury-free, a professional bike fitting makes for a more comfortable ride, and the right ski boot often determines whether you have a truly great day on the slopes.
Even as buying behavior changes, that exact expertise remains essential in brick-and-mortar retail. Making that added value visible and tangible – creating a real point of experience – is one of the most exciting challenges in our communications.
Specialist sports retail is constantly changing. How are you experiencing this development right now?
The market and consumer behavior have changed significantly in recent years. At the same time, every change also brings opportunities, which we as a retail service organization want to use proactively together with our retailers.
Today, consumers research digitally, find inspiration online, and often come into the store very well prepared. This makes expertise, personal advice, and genuine specialization all the more important. That’s exactly where the great strengths of our SPORT 2000 retailers lie. People today aren’t just looking for products – in brick-and-mortar retail, they’re above all looking for service quality, expertise, and trust.
Our “Home of Experts” strategy directly addresses this development. Together with socialPALS, our goal is to make this quality visible beyond the store as well.
What does that mean specifically for your role as SPORT 2000 Austria?
Our role has evolved significantly in recent years. Today, we no longer see ourselves merely as a representative body, but as an active service provider for our retailers. It’s about real relief and concrete added value in day-to-day business.
Our service portfolio ranges from marketing and digital services like SPORT 2000 rent, to training, to financial solutions. A good example is the central settlement system we run together with DZB Bank, which makes many processes significantly more efficient and predictable for retailers. At the same time, with formats like the Future Retail Academy, we’re investing heavily in knowledge transfer and training, because retail is changing extremely fast today. Retailers today need not just good products, but also access to know-how, support with digitalization, and modern marketing solutions. Our standard is always the same: to offer solutions that take work off retailers’ plates – not add more.
SPORT 2000 Austria was the first organization within the ANWR Group to choose socialPALS. How did that come about?
We decided to start with socialPALS back in 2020 and were the pioneers on this topic within the ANWR Group. For us, what mattered most in this collaboration was that the solution wouldn’t just work technologically, but would actually land in practice with our retailers. Because that’s ultimately where it’s decided whether a measure can be successfully implemented or not.
Today, we can prepare brand content centrally while simultaneously distributing it locally through our retailers. This creates professional digital visibility without retailers having to manage individual campaigns themselves on a daily basis. And this is also where the strength of the ANWR Group shows: when good solutions emerge, synergies are created across the international network. socialPALS is a great example of this, and has also been rolled out in additional countries since 2022.
What was the biggest challenge in activating dealers?
The problem was never the brands’ content – that’s generally very high quality in the sports sector. The real challenge was actually getting that content to retailers, and from there to end customers. Making relevant content efficiently deployable at the local level – without creating extra effort for retailers – was one of the key issues. The shift toward digital campaigns takes time, resources, and marketing know-how, on top of ongoing day-to-day business. That’s why this kind of development doesn’t happen overnight.
What matters is building understanding, making the added value transparent, and bringing retailers along step by step so they can tap into the full potential. That’s exactly where we come in as a retail service organization.
What sports retailers are saying:
Sport Hofer KG
Lena Gleirscher
What works better today than it did a few years ago?
Processes today have become significantly more structured and efficient. Campaigns are prepared centrally and distributed automatically. At the same time, retailers always retain full freedom of choice. That’s very important to us.
It’s an offering within our SPORT 2000 network that brings a great many advantages. This allows us to bring high-quality brand communication efficiently into the regions and support our retailers in reaching customers. For retailers, this above all means one thing: less complexity and more time for customers, advice, and sales.
Many retailers used to be hesitant about digital marketing topics. Has that changed?
Is everything perfect today – or are there things you're still working on together?
Perfection probably won’t ever exist in digitalization, because it’s an ongoing development process. There were features and ad formats that mattered to us and still needed to develop – Instagram Story Ads, for example. What’s crucial, though, is that we always work together openly and with a solution-oriented mindset. That’s exactly what makes for a good collaboration, in our view.
How important is it for you, as a retail service organization, to have influence on the platform's ongoing development?
Very important. We don’t just want to use a solution – we want to actively help shape it. Feedback from retailers’ day-to-day reality is extremely valuable here and continuously feeds into the platform’s further development. That exchange makes a real difference for us.
What sports retailers are saying:
“For me, the platform is a major advantage mainly because of the automation – it takes a good deal of work off my plate in everyday business. Since I’m not particularly active on social media myself, it’s ideal that my channels still get updated regularly. I also really like the wide range of brands I can present through it without any hassle.”
Bruneder Schuh- u. Sportartikel e.U
Klaus Bruneder
What role does your dealer network play in this?
How do you see the topic of dealer marketing developing going forward?
It will become more structured and even more strongly shaped by digital. Going it alone will increasingly be a tough position to be in – strong networks will matter more and more.
That said, individuality and storytelling must never be lost.
What advice would you give to other organizations or brands?
Dealer activation doesn’t happen on its own – and at the same time, it’s becoming more complex and faster-moving. You need efficient solutions, clear processes, and the right support in the background so that digital measures can actually be implemented without unnecessary complications.
When these factors come together, real added value emerges – for retailers, brands, and end customers alike.
Conclusion:
The SPORT 2000 Austria case shows: dealer activation isn’t a short-term project, but an ongoing process. Today, retailers expect concrete solutions that work in everyday practice and save time at the same time.
This is exactly where SPORT 2000 Austria, as a retail service organization, comes in: with digital marketing solutions, personal support, and a clear commitment to easing the load for retailers rather than creating additional complexity.
Together with partners like socialPALS, this collaboration has produced a system that efficiently brings brand communication into the respective regions – while at the same time showcasing the strength of brick-and-mortar specialist sports retail.
Want to find out how your brand can digitally activate its specialist retail network? Request your platform demo now!
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