Decathlon—Bike Subscription—Powered by circuly

"This launch wouldn’t have been possible without our trusted partner, circuly (subscription SaaS) — a great example of how corporates and startups can combine strengths to build more relevant customer experiences." - Decathlon Belgium

About Decathlon: A retailer with 1,700 stores starts rethinking ownership

Decathlon is one of the world’s largest sporting goods retailers, with more than 1,700 stores across 70+ countries and a mission centred around making sports accessible to everyone.

At the heart of the company’s philosophy is a simple belief: to move people through the wonders of sport. Today, Decathlon designs, develops, and supports equipment for over 60 different sports, ranging from everyday activities like cycling and running to specialised disciplines such as climbing, diving, and archery.

From short-term to long-term rental models

In recent years, Decathlon has expanded beyond traditional retail into service-based models, including rentals and subscriptions.

Decathlon started rolling out short-term rental services for sports equipment and clothing around 2021-2022 in specific markets.

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Those early initiatives provided valuable insights. The data showed that rental customers behaved differently from traditional retail customers:

• Rental customers were younger on average, with 16% belonging to Gen Z
• They interacted with the brand more frequently, with around 7 transactions per year
• Their average annual spend reached €315, compared to €257 for regular retail customers

These insights confirmed something important: Rental models don't just provide access to products, they deepen customer relationships.

After successfully running short-term rental programs, Decathlon Belgium decided to take the next step: launching a long-term rental model.

eBikes now, with plans to scale across product ecosystem

Decathlon has started with eBikes but eBikes are only the beginning. The long-term vision goes much further. Decathlon sees subscription and rental models as a way to eventually offer long-term access to a much broader range of products across its catalogue, serving both individual consumers and businesses.

This perspective reflects a deeper shift in how the company views its relationship with products and customers.

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Subscriptions are not seen simply as another revenue model. Instead, they unlock a range of strategic advantages:

• Greater product lifecycle control: enabling products to be returned, repaired, refurbished, and reused.
• More service-oriented customer experiences: where access, support, and flexibility become part of the offering.
• Longer customer relationships: built through ongoing interaction rather than one-time purchases.
• More efficient product utilisation: allowing products to generate value across multiple users over time.
• New revenue opportunities: through recurring models and expanded service offerings.

For a company operating at Decathlon’s global scale, these capabilities open the door to new ways of delivering value to customers while supporting a more circular approach to products.

To pilot and operationalise this model, Decathlon Belgium partnered with circuly to power the subscription infrastructure behind the long-term e-bike rental program.

The vision: A simple rental experience online and in-store

When Decathlon Belgium began exploring long-term rentals, the objective was not simply to launch a new service. The goal was to build a model that works seamlessly within Decathlon’s existing ecosystem across online channels, physical retail stores, and operational teams.

From the beginning, the vision was clear:

• Customers should be able to subscribe online or directly in-store
• Store teams should be able to create subscriptions quickly and easily during customer interactions
• The experience should feel as simple as a standard e-commerce purchase
• Services such as maintenance, repairs, and theft protection should be integrated into the offer
• All subscriptions and product operations should be managed centrally
• Existing Decathlon customers should be able to use their current Decathlon accounts to access the service
• The system should support the full lifecycle of rental products, including returns, maintenance, and redeployment
• The model should be scalable beyond e-bikes to additional product categories and potentially B2B offerings

In short, the vision was to create a rental model that is simple for customers, practical for store teams, and operationally scalable.

The solution: circuly as the subscription backbone

With the vision clearly defined, Decathlon Belgium evaluated whether circuly could support the operational and customer experience requirements of the model. The circuly platform met each of Decathlon’s key requirements:

• ‍Omnichannel subscription management: Subscriptions can be created both online and in-store, while all orders, subscriptions, and customer data are managed centrally in one system.‍
• Asset lifecycle management: Every bike can be tracked throughout its lifecycle, including availability, active subscriptions, maintenance, returns, and redeployment to the next customer.‍
• Subscription lifecycle flexibility: The platform supports the full lifecycle of long-term rentals, including subscription creation, swaps, upgrades, returns, and cancellations.‍
• Automated recurring billing and invoicing: Recurring payments and invoices are handled automatically, ensuring reliable subscription billing over long rental periods.‍
• Integration with Decathlon’s ecosystem: circuly integrates with Decathlon’s existing systems, including payment infrastructure and customer data.‍
• Single Sign-On (SSO) for existing customers: Customers can access the rental service using their existing Decathlon account credentials, creating a seamless login and checkout experience.‍
• Retail-friendly workflows: Store teams can create subscriptions in just a few steps using simple workflows that work efficiently on retail devices.‍
• Central operational control: All subscriptions, products, and customer interactions are managed in one operational backend, enabling the Decathlon team to run the rental program efficiently.

circuly's impact:

By combining Decathlon’s retail expertise with circuly’s subscription infrastructure, the long-term rental model unlocks several strategic advantages.

• ‍A new access model for customers: Customers can access high-quality e-bikes without the upfront cost of ownership, while benefiting from services such as maintenance, repairs, and theft protection.‍
• Seamless omnichannel subscriptions: Customers can subscribe either online or directly in-store, allowing Decathlon to leverage both its digital platform and its physical retail network.‍
• Stronger customer relationships: Subscription models enable ongoing relationships with customers instead of one-time purchases, creating more touchpoints and long-term engagement.
• ‍Greater product lifecycle control: Rental models allow Decathlon to regain products after use, enabling repair, refurbishment, and redeployment.‍
• Improved product utilisation: Products can generate value across multiple customers over time instead of being sold once.‍
• Operational scalability: With subscription management, asset tracking, billing, and customer management handled centrally through circuly, the model can be expanded to additional product categories in the future.

What started with e-bikes is only the beginning. With the operational foundation now in place, Decathlon has the infrastructure to expand long-term rentals across additional product categories and potentially new customer segments.