Preparing for a UK flagship and global home for the burgeoning trading cards and sports market.

What we built

Experience-led market entry

Fanatics Collectibles, a global leader in trading cards and collectibles, is far from new to retail. Despite operating over 60 physical store locations across its portfolio worldwide, Fanatics turned to Agile Retail to accelerate their growth and tap into the rapidly growing enthusiasm for trading cards across Europe with a first of its kind flagship experience.

Beginning with a dynamic pop-up to prepare for an the full immersive flagship store, we leveraged our turnkey retail solution to concept, build, staff, and operate the store.

We created a space to test and refine the concept, adjusting standard operating procedures to adapt to the complexities of dynamic pricing and product scarcity. Events, card breaks, and workshops contributed to awareness, established community, and showcased Fanatics as the leader in UK collectables. In-store experiences included a card claw machine, a 'Take a Card - Leave a Card' wall, and the personalised football card creation booth. This initial entrance into the physical retail space served as a test bed for experimentation and learning about Fanatics’ retail offering and the trading card and memorabilia community more generally.

2 month pop-up in Westfield

100's of first time trading card buyers

Exclusive events for the collector community

Solutions

What problems are we solving?

Unlike traditional retail products, trading cards require more than shelf presence. Education, engagement, and community-building are vital in attracting customers and sparking curiosity. By designing spaces where customers could learn about the hobby, participate in events, and see the excitement firsthand, we turned a niche hobby into a growing category.

Insights from the pop-up in turn informed the flagship store’s design, which aims to deliver an even more immersive experience; a space capable of hosting community trading and events and athlete visits and appearances

Reduced Risk Venturing – Entering a new market can be a daunting and complex process, with our agile and cost-effective retail solution we spun up a pilot pop-up store to test operational complexities and derisk the flagship endeavour.

New and Unique Product to Market - We worked to attract and introduce a new audience to a category in its infancy. Through an engaging and eye-catching retail presence we created a retail offering that would help Fanatics thrive in a new market.

Community Building Through Experience – The collector community is small, but its members are passionate, to engage the existing community and expand the audience we organised and ran events with visiting athletes and early releases.

Insights

What we learned

Our strategy centred on creating a retail environment that excited, engaged, and educated customers about trading cards. By leveraging our deep understanding of the UK market and managing every aspect of the launch, we ensured a seamless and impactful entry for Fanatics.

This venture not only expanded Fanatics’ reach but also set a benchmark for their retail presence, fostering a thriving community and igniting interest in trading cards across a new audience.

Are you ready to expand into new markets or transform the way customers experience your brand? Whether you’re launching a niche product or scaling a global retail presence, we’re here to help you succeed. Let’s turn your next big idea into a thriving reality.

This is fantastic. You should be very proud of what you have achieved in the last few weeks. It has been a pleasure working with your superb team bringing this to life.

Simon Rosenberg,
Retail Director for Fanatics Collectibles

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