The "Subscription Trap": Why most retailers failwhere Decathlon succeeded. Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) sounds simple in a boardroom. Inreality? It’s a total rewiring of the retail DNA.
I sat down with Yann Carré to deconstruct how Decathlon scaled from zero to multi-million GMV in just afew years. The secret wasn't the "idea" it was the plumbing.
To win at PaaS, you have to solve the "unsexy" fundamentals:
• The Cash Gap: Moving from €200 upfront to €12/month (andfixing sales incentives so your team doesn't revolt).
• The Asset Lifecycle: Trackingvalue as it depreciates, then refurbishing it for a second (and third) life.
• The Risk Factor: Fraud looksdifferent when your inventory is living in someone’s garage,not your warehouse.
• The Billing Nightmare:"Quote-to-cash" at scale is a different beast than a standard POStransaction.
The CEO-level takeaway:
You cannot "bolt-on" a subscription model to a legacy business. Ifit’s treated as a "nice pilot," it will die as one. Decathlon wonbecause they treated it as a business transformation, not an experiment.
👇Deep dive into the journey here:
🎧Spotify
🎧Apple Podcast
Podcast
Sales & Incentives
#7 - Scaling Product-as-a-Service at Decathlon: The Transformation Playbook
Decathlon scaled Product-as-a-Service to multi-million GMV. Discover the operational shifts retailers must solve to make subscriptions actually work.
40 min listen
Nos ressources sont publiées principalement en anglais. La navigation et les descriptions sont traduites.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is The Products to Services Podcast about?
A: The Products to Services Podcast by P2S Management Consulting explores how industrial firms are transitioning from one-off product sales to recurring-revenue and As-a-Service business models. Each episode features real-world case studies, expert interviews, and practical frameworks from 500+ analysed industrial cases.
Q: Who should listen to this podcast?
A: The podcast is designed for industrial executives, product managers, commercial leaders, and anyone involved in designing or scaling recurring-revenue models in manufacturing, HVAC, energy, automation, and other industrial sectors.
Q: Where can I listen to The Products to Services Podcast?
A: The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms. New episodes are released regularly covering topics like servitization, Equipment-as-a-Service, subscription models, and industrial transformation.
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