Retailer Profile: X Double, Innsbruck, Austria

Shop Name: X-Double

Location: Innsbruck, Austria

Website: www.xdouble.com

X-Double is skate and snowboard shop who support there local scene and try to offer something different to the big online retailers: by offering a lot of limited and segmented lines.

What percentage of your sales are from online business compared to your in-store sales?
As we just started an online Store Project we are currently doing 99.9% in store.

What trends do you see upcoming?
Big onliners go retail and are making the life of small shops harder. As they stock nearly every brand the smaller core stores do. The only possibility to stay different from them is segmentation from the industry.  

Please tell us of any upcoming events your shop has planned?
We have a warm up for a music festival in front of the store with some bands playing live. We also have a stop from the LRG Tour in front of our store and our skate team is starting a Tour to Tuscany, Italy.

What are you doing to pull people into your store?
Support the local scene (team riders, skateparks, snowparks). Direct Mailings, events, a professional staff team who is working with passion for the boardsports, social media marketing, ads, flyers and run a blog.

What are your top three selling brands?
Volcom and Vans are on top, and a lot of smaller Brands are dividing up the rest.

What do you find important about having a high street store rather than simply having an online store? 
If local stores disappear this will have an effect on the local scenes. Shops can talk to the kids face to face, have connections with skate and snow parks and help to plan and realize them. We also know that people want local stores and styles vary from town to town and from country to country.

How’s the local market in Innsbruck at the moment?
As one of the big internet players opened a flagship store here the market is in moving and as we had a very tight store structure here even before, times are not getting easier. It’s more and more a price fight and it is getting more discount driven.

What makes your store different and in what ways does your store excel beyond your competition?
We carry a lot of limited stuff and segmented lines. We have the closest connection to the local scene and the longest experience in our home market. But as I said it is getting more and more discount driven and this brings a lower turnover.

How do you stay in touch with the wants and needs of your customers?
Talk, talk, talk with real people face to face – with our customers, our teamriders and events.