g on the door,” Warhurst said. “That’s why we thought we would make it a small retail space, not expecting it to trade as well as it has been, or be received as well as it has been.” Sales are exceeding budgets by 10 to 15 per cent, month on month. Most of the warehouse is taken up with racking product, with a small retail space out the front. Previously the premises was a supermarket and there aren’t many retail outlets in the area, however, it attracts a lot of passing shoppers, including many families and after school trade. “We are seeing a lot of new customers, customers we have not had at Joggers World at either of the other locations before, which is terrific. We are finding our database is increasing,” Warhurst said. Saturdays are particularly good as families come in either before or after sport. “Whether all of them are purchasing or just one or two, we haven’t experienced that in our other stores before; mum and dad and the children coming in at the same time,” Warhurst said. The warehouse joins two other Joggers World stores in the Adelaide area that are located at Harbour Town shopping centre and in Pirie St in the CBD. The Pirie St store mezzanine has two podiatrists in practice, as well as a physiotherapist and massage therapist, while at Harbour Town, one of the staff has completed podiatrist qualifications so customers reap the benefit of her knowledge free. Free video gait analysis is also offered at all the stores. Customers use a treadmill barefoot, and their feet are videoed from behind to identify the degree of rolling in or out of the foot. Staff are trained to analyse the video and footwear is chosen based on the activity or sport the customer wants to undertake, for example, running, playing tennis or hiking. “For us, it is a very powerful tool because it shows us what the feet are doing and to make sure they are getting the right stability in the footwear that they are going to purchase,” Warhurst said. The most exciting development for the business in the past 12 months has been its involvement with the Intersport Group, the largest sports goods retailer in the world, which became official last July, giving the business access to European style product. The Harbour Town store is now known as Intersport Harbour Town – the Joggers World tag has been dropped, while the other two stores (the Fullarton warehouse store and the other store at 123 Pirie Street) are known as Intersport Joggers World. Another connection reaping benefits is Joggers World’s association with online shopping sports mall SlashSport. “We have put just as much effort into it as a physical store,” Warhurst said. “It hit a flat spot, as everything did in the last quarter of 2014, but there’s been definite growth more recently,” especially in the first quarter of 2015 she said. “Ten years ago when we started the website it was more of a PR exercise, and my husband (and business partner Tom Warhurst) said there is no way this will ever work, because people need to try shoes on; well we’re finding that’s a different story now.” In May the Joggers World website will be relaunched. It will have the majority of products that are instore, with free delivery within Australia. This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2044. To subscribe, click here.