Nike’s new retail app is so good it will make you want to shop in-store again
As many of us are aware, shopping in-store has dramatically dropped over the years due to the convenience of online shopping!
At Pivotal, we know that your products need to be the reason your shopper comes in store and to showcase these, there needs to be a twist, bringing something different to the table or having your display be aesthetically pleasing.
We are all about wanting the retail industry to stay alive! Nike drops a fantastic app called Nike Fit and we think this is going to be a major hit to the industry! Watch this space!
INSIGHT
‘Did you know that 3/5 people are likely wearing the wrong size shoe? That’s partly because the system the industry uses to determine shoe size is antiquated. It’s not just the equipment — essentially a foot ruler with a measurement scale based on a barley corn kernel–but the concept of sizing itself. Length and width don’t provide nearly enough data to get a shoe to fit comfortably. Sizing as we know it is a gross simplification of a complex problem.
Enter Nike Fit… A new scanning solution that uses a proprietary combination of computer vision, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence and recommendation algorithms. It does this by measuring the full shape of both feet, offering the ability to know your truly perfect fit for each Nike shoe style. While shopping within the Nike app, there’s a moment we all face when we get close to purchasing a pair of new shoes where we ask ourselves: “What size am I?” This is where Nike Fit comes in. When you go to select your size, there will be a new option that asks whether you’d like to try Nike Fit.’
‘Using your smartphone’s camera, Nike Fit will scan your feet, collecting 13 data points mapping your foot morphology for both feet within a matter of seconds. This hyper-accurate scan of your unique foot dimension can then be stored in your NikePlus member profile and easily used for future shopping online and in-store. You can also use Nike Fit in a Nike retail store. This experience leverages a specially developed Nike Fit mat (rather than a wall) and allows store athletes to help recommend the best fit for whatever Nike shoe you’re shopping..If you want to shop for family or friends, you can enter a guest mode that will allow you to also scan their feet. Nike Fit will be great for parents trying to figure out what size cleat, basketball shoe or runner your little one needs this time.’
HOW TO APPLY IT
‘Once you’ve scanned your feet, you will be offered a “best fit for you” recommendation for that footwear wherever you shop — in the app or in store. For example, if you have used Nike Fit to scan your feet and you go to purchase a Nike Cortez on the Nike app, you won’t see a run of sizes anymore. Instead, you’ll just see your size for that particular shoe. Then, if you go to buy a Nike Air Zoom Pegasus you might see another size. That’s because different shoes are made with different performance intent – a running shoe works best for the athlete when a little more snug while a sportswear shoe is designed to have more room for everyday wear.’
WHY NIKE FIT MATTERS
‘Nike Fit is a transformative solution and an industry first — using a digital technology to solve customer friction. In the short term, Nike Fit will improve the way Nike designs, manufactures and sells shoes — product better tailored to match consumer needs. A more accurate fit can contribute to everything from less shipping and fewer returns to better performance.’
Inside Nike Town London, the brand’s flagship Oxford Street store
‘When you walk into the Nike Town London store, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a high-end gym. A DJ welcomes you in, spinning pulsing house music, whilst attractive staff clad head-to-toe in workout gear (Nike calls their in-store staff athletes) swan around the store, with seemingly no tills in sight. Shopping in a Nike store is big on the “experience” side of things, complete with cool installations and an enviable collection of trainers making up the sneaker wall. This all part of Nike’s plans to get consumers to continue to shop in store, with the help of technology. Using geolocation tagging, the app knows when you arrive in the store and offers up a range of new features to make physically browsing products a more enjoyable experience, via your smartphone. We’re all heads down 24/7 and we have to be pretty impactful to get consumers attention and we need to figure out how we bring that behaviour into how consumers are shopping in stores,” Nike’s global senior director of member and athlete services, Michelle Warvel, tells the Standard.’
HOW THE SHOPPING FEATURE WORKS
‘Nike says it spoke to over 500 consumers around the world to talk about what they liked and disliked about shopping in store to craft these features around what they wanted. The feedback included wanting an easy way to find products, being able to self-serve without speaking to a store associate and also that it should be a personal experience. “We took that feedback to really define what the Nike App would be,” says Warvel. For Nike, the shopping journey now starts at home. If you’re looking online for a particular item, say some trainers or leggings, you can check to see if that item is in stock in your size. Using the app, you can reserve the item and in less than two hours, it will be ready to pick up. This feature is for anyone that has ever traipsed across London to find a specific piece of clothing in their size, only to be disappointed. The reserve features work in store too, via try on. Scan a barcode in a pair of trainers, and request to try on your size. The app walks you through the different steps, from a Nike athlete picking up the order, to when the boxfresh pair is available to pick and try on, all in a matter of minutes. You can even request for items to be placed in specific areas of the store, whilst you’re browsing.
Once you’ve tried something on and like it, you can pay on the spot with the instant checkout feature, allowing you to skip the queues and shop in a way that works for you. Turning shopping into an experience is something Nike prides itself on, just take one look at its in-store DJs and Instagrammable displays. This is to be recommended: according to a report by the Future Laboratory last year, commissioned by shopping centre Centre:MK, around 75 per cent of Generation Z respondents said they prefer stores that provide a “memorable and encouraging offer.” Putting scanners in the hands of shoppers via their smartphones turns a passive browsing moment into something fun and engaging, and crucially, will get people coming into store again and again.’
HOW NIKE CREATED THE APP
‘One of the first criteria for the new features was that they shouldn’t form a separate app, they needed to be part of the existing Nike app infrastructure. “That was a big principle and a lot of that was because as we start to find new ways of shopping, of merging digital and physical, we needed to make sure that all of our digital experiences and physical experiences are really tied closely together,” she explains. Teams across Nike were brought together to ensure that this integration could be possible, allowing Nike customers to shop across platforms interchangeably. “So, it wasn’t about creating new tech or introducing a lot of new capabilities, it was really about how do we bring the features together and the teams together within Nike to start thinking and working a little differently,” adds Warvel. The company recently released the new Nike App in the Oxford Street store, which aims to bridge the gap between shopping online and shopping in-store in a seamless way.’
OUR THOUGHTS
We think this is a great way to get people involved instore when shopping for their Nike shoes! This hopefully could develop into even more avenues than we imagined. Nike’s new way of thinking if a great way moving forward in this wonderful world of retail and we definitely want to try this out!
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