Originally posted on Housakicks
Chris from ARCH and I have been screaming about the Nike DTC campaign for quite some time now, and everything the brand has done as of late is geared toward improving the consumer personal experience with the ultimate goal of keeping the traffic in house. To sum it up , Nike is progressively doing away with its wholesale distribution channel; recently they launched the Nike Run Club App which allows the consumer the opportunity to learn directly from Nike’s elite coaches and athletes (who offer training tips), as well as pep talks from entertainers such as Kevin Hart. The App does much more than what I’ve cited and you can read about it in the link below.
So Adidas has just launched a new personal app and when you read what the app does, you don’t need to be an Einstein to realize that the intention is to enhance the consumer’s experience and keep the traffic in house just like Nike. Many brands are adopting the DTC ( Direct To Consumer ) model. The sad part is that retailers seem to fail to understand the implications of DTC. Malls are already not as frequented like they used to be; my local mall has already lost its only Finishline and Sportszone stores due to poor performance. The only store left in there is Footlocker which has recently been renovated to suit the consumer’s need. Before I say anything else, let me give you a quick breakdown of what the new Adidas personalized app does. According to Joseph Godsey who is the head of Adidas’s digital brand commerce,
With the Adidas app, we are truly enhancing and personalizing our consumer’s experience with Adidas. With one tap, consumers can now purchase directly through the app, track their order, interact with the brand and benefit from a customized newsfeed.
The app gets to know the consumer’s sport and style preferences and learns from his or her behavior and interaction with Adidas across all our digital touch points.The new app helps us connect and create direct relationships with our consumers. It enables us to further evolve our business and ensure e-commerce continues as our fastest growing sales channel
src: footwearnews
The motto of the app is “To you, for you, with you”. Can you interpret the message it carries? Did you read the last sentence of the quote? E-Commerce continues to be Adidas ‘s fastest growing sales channel; nothing screams louder Bye Bye retailers than this sentence. Like I said earlier, this is a complete mimic of Nike’s DTC model to keep everything in house and more brands are adapting it. There will be many more changes in the retail industry as a result of this in the months to come. Stay tuned.
