Retail in Asia

In Trends

Manchester City FC targets top spot in retail performance

Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor, Barry, Mancini… the list of English Premier League outfit Manchester City’s (MCFC) signings grows by the day. While Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is eager to deliver success on the pitch, it is clear that the club’s hierarchy is also keen on optimising results off it in the club’s retail operation.

The real change on the retail side of things came as MCFC combined its ticketing operation, call centre, and store and customer service centre into a purpose-built facility at The City of Manchester Stadium. A new layout across two floors saw sportswear items placed downstairs and shirt printing and ticket collection situated upstairs, an unusual design for a football club store that required a quantum leap in terms of analysing retail sales, staff performance and customer interaction. This need was further accentuated by store traffic trends, which see daily numbers of between 500 and 1,000 customers swell to as many as 40,000 on match days.