Mobile experiences, including a direct distribution platform and a way to build one-to-one interactions with the most loyal customers, have become an integral part of Nike’s marketing policy. CFO Matt Friend said that Nike’s active members grew by almost 60 percent, and it saw greater growth for purchasing members.
While the majority of Nike’s brick-and-mortar shops were open throughout the quarter, during the pandemic, many customers ignored malls and shops. Digital revenue growth of 82 percent for Nike-branded products has helped boost the growth in demand for its mobile applications.
After reducing the subscription fee for its NTC premium membership in March, Nike possibly increased the use of its services, as pandemic lockdowns went into effect in several countries, including the U.S. The Nike App, the Nike Run Club app, the Nike Training Club app, social media, nike.com, and its ‘Trained’ podcast are the exclusive suite of services. Nike updated its campaign with more people trapped indoors and unveiled a new message, “Play inside, play for the world,” together with accompanying social networking hashtags.
This year, Nike has developed a series of mobile-based promotions to further promote its global digital distribution platforms. In July, throughout Japan, Nike released a customized magazine that lets readers colour black-and-white sketches of their Air Max sneakers and then sees their work on their phones in a 3D augmented reality ( AR) interface. The campaign targeted the design group of Japan, with just 1,000 copies of the magazine distributed at shops.
Nike set up a microsite in May that requested Brazilian consumers to lift their smartphones to the sky to see an Air Max sneaker-shaped AR cloud. They were offered a chance to access exclusive digital content after discovering the digital cloud. The promotions were a symbol of how mobile-based interactions were introduced by Nike to boost growth in sales.
Digital revenues were a great success for Nike, whose revenue in the most recent quarter of the previous year slipped 1 percent to $10.6 billion. Its net sales rose 11% to $1.5 billion, while last year’s digital platforms contributed $900 million in incremental revenue.
As stated by Retail Dive, the growth met Nike’s objective of achieving 30 percent of digital channel revenue three years ahead of schedule. Nike launched a concept store named Nike Rise as stores reopened in China that sponsored brand interactions on smartphones, including the Nike Experiences function in its application.
