Recently, the world’s first Nike Rise retail concept store – Nike Guangzhou Brand Experience Store (hereinafter referred to as Nike Rise) officially opened. Behind this retail concept store, it fully reflects that the American sports giant is accelerating its transformation from “Consumer Direct Offense” strategy upgraded to “Consumer Direct Acceleration”.
Nike Rise is the fourth type of retail concept store launched by Nike in addition to regular brand stores. The other three categories include: “House of Innovation”, a large-scale concept flagship store launched in key cities such as Shanghai and New York, “Nike Live”, a small community concept store launched in California and Asia, and discount concept store Nike Factory.
As Michael Martin, Vice President and General Manager of Direct Retail of Nike Greater China, said: “China is one of the most dynamic and exciting markets. In this world leading and As digitalization continues to accelerate and deepen into the consumer market, consumer behavior has undergone substantial changes. Consumers have higher requirements for a seamless online and offline retail experience.”
The world’s first Nike Rise store opens in Guangzhou
This is the second time that Nike has chosen to open its world’s first innovative retail store in China. The last concept store was on October 4, 2018. Nike’s world’s first “House of Innovation” – “Nike Shanghai 001” store opened in Shanghai, about a month earlier than the opening in New York.
As a famous sports city, Guangzhou has particularly popular football and basketball cultures. For example, in the “Ranking of Most Influential Marathon Events in 2019”, the Guangzhou Marathon ranks among the top three. According to Nike NRC (Nike RunClub), members in Guangzhou have logged in and accumulated a total of 3.2 million kilometers of running miles.
This new store is located in Grandview Mall in Guangzhou, adjacent to Guangzhou Tianhe Sports Center, covering an area of approximately With an area of 2,053 square meters, the store has three floors, providing women’s, men’s and children’s related products and Jordan brand space.
Nike has also noticed that Chinese consumers are paying attention to the topic of sustainable environmental protection: it is understood that in the decoration design of this store, about 10% of the recycled materials come from Nike Grind (environmentally friendly rubber recycled and transformed from footwear products and waste materials) is mainly used for rubber floors and display supports in stores.
Nike App empowers Nike physical retail
Nike CEO John Donahoe once told analysts that the company’s current goal is to increase the proportion of digital business to 50% from 30% in the previous quarter. He said the company’s e-commerce development has entered a new stage, which he called the “Consumer Direct Acceleration” stage.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended on May 31, Nike’s digital business grew 75% and 79% at constant exchange rates. Nike App and SNKRS App Become the main driving force of growth.
“Nike launched the Chinese version of Nike App in November last year and received 11 million downloads .The success of Nike App in China further proves that Chinese consumers are increasingly recognizing online retail,” said Michael Martin, Vice President and General Manager of Direct Retail of Nike Greater China. “With the successful experience of Nike App, Nike will Further accelerate the digital transformation of retail, create a safer and more innovative shopping experience for consumers, and at the same time promote the prosperity and development of the entire fitness, health and community.”
In the newly opened Nike Rise, you can experience a series of physical retail services empowered by Nike App, including: Nike App@retail, the first to go online “Nike Quickly Get a Try-on” (Nike Scanto Try-on), “Nike Find Your Size” (Nike Scan to Learn), Nike Fit (measure the shape of your feet and recommend sizes), and Nike Experiences ).
Among them, “Fit in” is the first store in China to introduce this service. This is an innovative technology used to determine shoe sizes. It combines computer vision, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to comprehensively measure the shape of consumers’ feet and then recommend the most suitable shoe size for them. It is reported that this technology has been put into use in stores in the United States last year.
The “Nike Quick Get” try-on function allows consumers to quickly obtain products and purchase them by scanning product barcodes. Try it on. Whether in a physical store or on a mobile phoneEveryone can enjoy a flexible, convenient and personalized smart shopping experience.
The “Nike App@retail” function has been developed for some time. This time it is launched in China. Consumers can use Nike App to view all the Nike stores around them. Products are in real-time inventory, and you can also use it to scan product barcodes for detailed information and then self-checkout.
City-based localization & socialization
Localization is an important challenge for the refined operation of a global brand like Nike. Nike has been trying to meet the historical culture and consumption habits of different regions offline through different types of retail concept stores, and create localized retail services and experiences.
The large-scale concept flagship store “the House of Innovation” previously launched in key cities such as Shanghai and New York, and the small community concept store “Nike Live” launched in California, the United States and Asia, They are all explorations and attempts at localized retail.
At the same time, based on the large amount of data and member stickiness of Nike App, Nike further strengthens its interaction with members in the community. For example, through the “Nike City Member Experience” (Nike Experiences) function, people can get a series of additional experiences even if they leave a Nike store.
“Nike City Member Experience” (Nike Experiences) – is the latest digital-driven platform launched by Nike for the first time in the world , this platform based on the concept of community can encourage members to actively participate in various sports and trend activities held in the store and in Guangzhou city, such as Nike expert camp, celebrity coach workshop, healthy life and cultural sharing sessions, etc.
Nike members can register through this platform to participate in local sports activities organized by Nike, including football matches, running clubs, etc. These events will be held at the newly opened stores in Guangzhou or at the nearby Tianhe Stadium or other nearby sports centers. Nike said the experience will soon be rolled out to other cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing.
Nike also launched “Nike Member Day” for the first time in China, providing members with an invitation-only private shopping experience and opening up Nike By You 365 customization, through highly personalized services and experience and further deepen relationships with local members.
Cathy Sparks, Nike’s vice president and general manager of global direct-operated stores and services, told the media: “The goal of this store is is to bring the sports pulse and energy of the city to our members and connect members together. Our relationship with Chinese consumers is very strong. They have been very receptive and have taught us as we go. A lot.” She said that in addition to sports experiences, Nike’s membership program will also expand in areas such as health, nutrition and sleep.
China becomes Nike’s digital testing base
Nike global direct sales Cathy Sparks, vice president and general manager of stores and services, said: “We have been rethinking the concept mix and evaluating all of our retail footprints. We are excited to continue to accelerate the digitalization of stores, which we know will help Nike achieve digital growth. She said that Nike is analyzing models suitable for different markets, and some existing stores may also change retail concepts.
China is already a testing base for Nike’s digitalization. The brand can apply the experience learned from Chinese consumers to its Global business strategy. Nike reported last month that despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic in the second half of fiscal year 2020, excluding exchange rate effects, the brand achieved double-digit growth in the Chinese market for the sixth consecutive year.
Cathy Sparks revealed that she will bring the Nike Rise concept to North America by renovating some large stores. The first Nike Rise in North America is expected to be located in Los Angeles, but an exact opening date has not yet been determined. Due to the epidemic, the plan may be postponed to May next year. Nike will also open a new concept store the House of Innovation in Paris later this year.
Less than two weeks ago, Nike just announced that it intends to open 150 to 200 new small digital stores (based on Nike Live) in North America and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). concept stores) and further increase investment in e-commerce and technology.
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