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Realize that this is a big problem, but also a big business opportunity.

After the Spring Festival, they will release a brand new technology Fit in China. This unique scanning technology uses computer vision and machine learning technology to help consumers find the right shoe size. This feature will appear in Nike App and Nike’s physical retail stores. The Nike App will remind consumers to use the mobile phone camera function to take a scanned image of their feet. The App will then generate a recommended shoe size range. This shoe size will be bound to the user’s Nike+ personal information. In the future, whether he is When buying Nike products in a Nike store or online, the system will automatically recognize his shoe size.

This technology uses technology from the startup Invertex, which mainly uses automation technology to develop consumer and medical products. Nike acquired it in March. Subsequently, on May 9, Nike took the lead in launching Nike Fit in the United States.

From the perspective of Nike’s use of Nike Fit, it is bound to be inevitable to bypass the Nike App. In other words, in addition to solving a shopping pain point, Nike Fit also has its value in encouraging more consumers to sign up for the Nike App. This will provide Nike with more substantial data and let Nike know which shoe sizes and models are more popular, thereby optimizing inventory management. At the time, Nike’s vice president of global digital products and innovation, Michael Martin, stated on the Nike Fit Demo in April that when they put Nike Fit in three retail stores at the beginning of the year for testing, those who did not have Nike members were also very active in asking how to make it. Save their shoe size information.

“In the future, when you buy a pair of shoes online, the shoe size and gender will no longer appear, but only your name will appear. This is our goal,” Martin said.

As early as 2016, Nike launched the Nike App, but it wasn’t until November 26 this year that the Nike App was officially launched in China. As the core of Nike’s digital ecology, its function focuses more on the ecological construction of the Nike membership system: according to the personal interests of the member users, it pushes the sports stories and wear suggestions that may be of interest to the member users; booking offline activities and sports courses organized by Nike ;Purchase exclusive products for members in advance; add the one-click sharing function of products to WeChat Moments and so on.

Prior to this, Nike’s App matrix can be said to be quite complete. What’s interesting is that they don’t seem to have consumers paying as their direct goal. For fitness enthusiasts, Nike provides a large number of professional exercise tutorials in the Nike Training Club; for running enthusiasts, Nike has a dedicated Nike Run Club; these two apps focus on content and will not embed any purchase ads or jumps. Transfer information. The Nike Connect surrounding the NBA and the Nike Adapt corresponding to the lace-free sneakers emphasize interactive experience and operation respectively. The SNKRS App is the official app that is necessary for the “toe toe” of limited-edition sneakers at the original price. Although you can place an order, the limited edition sold on it is too difficult to grab, so that fans can’t afford it even if they have money.

All these applications are designed to win over users, so as to continuously strengthen the brand’s direct-to-consumer business and reduce dependence on traditional wholesale business. This is also the core of Nike’s digital transformation in recent years.

But this round of digital transformation is completely different from the direction of the more peculiar technology products that Nike led before. At that time, wearable technology products became a hot market. Nike put a lot of effort into launching FuelBand, a digital fitness tracking wristband in 2012, and it competed with startups such as Fitbit and Jawbone. Later, after Apple launched the Apple Watch, Nike terminated the FuelBand project. Many commentators believed that this behavior was sufficient to prove the failure of the product-led digital strategy. However, Nike quickly found the right direction and realized that the software that drives these technological products, and the data they collect, is more valuable to Nike than developing a hardware product.

In June 2017, Nike proposed the “Consumer Direct Offense” strategy. The core of this strategy includes focusing on major cities, accelerating product innovation, editing product catalogs while providing accurate selection of best-performing styles, and using mobile devices as the main channel to strengthen digital investment. This time, Nike’s digital strategy has shifted its focus to data mining and predictive analysis, and it has acquired a series of artificial intelligence and data analysis startups to better understand consumers’ buying behavior.

SNKRS App was born thanks to the acquisition of Virgin Mega. This startup was originally incubated from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which specializes in providing high-quality mobile digital experiences for the fan community. Nike acquired it in 2016, and Ron Faris, who once worked for Virgin Mega, is currently the global vice president of SNKRS App. In August of this year, Nike acquired Celect, a Boston-based startup company. This company has developed retail predictive analysis and “demand perception” technology. Its artificial intelligence platform will strengthen Nike’s big data capabilities and predict consumers’ Product demand. This is also the third company Nike has acquired in the field of data analysis in the past two years. Of course, the acquisition of Invertex directly led the development of Nike Fit.

In addition to Nike, another sports brand is also keen to acquire. From 2013 to 2015, Under Armour spent US$710 million to acquire multiple fitness apps, including MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and Endomodo. They helped Under Armour quickly acquire new users in a short period of time-MapMyFtiness had 20 million registered users when it was acquired in 2013, and MyFitness Pal and Endomodo each had 80 million and 20 million users when they were acquired in 2015.

Nike’s acquisition has never been for the acquisition of users, what they acquired is the ability to provide consumers with a better experience.

Nike currently has more than 185 million members worldwide. It is estimated that by the end of fiscal year 2020, the direct retail (DTC) business will reach 16 billion U.S. dollars in sales, compared with 11.8 billion U.S. dollars last year. At present, Nike still has two-thirds of its revenue from retail partners. Increasing the proportion of DTC business allows Nike to bypass middlemen such as wholesale channels, sell products at higher prices, and have more control over product display and discount processing. At the same time, it can reduce reliance on third-party channels, especially some precarious department stores. But it is not that Nike will completely abandon third-party retail, but that it will have more stringent screening of retail partners. Foot Locker became the first third-party retailer to be integrated into the Nike App in August this year. Consumers can scan products to obtain inventory and product information, and win opportunities for free products or exclusive products. In November, Nike announced that it would stop selling its products on Amazon. “For our company, the most important goal is not to allow consumers to buy products, but to provide consumers with products that meet expected goals. To do this, we must create a seamless Nike consumer experience. If you just An undifferentiated retailer only sells Nike products without providing additional services. Then I think it has no value to us. I mean the value of providing services to our consumers. “Currently, Michael Martin, vice president of Nike Greater China and general manager of direct retail sales, said in an interview with BoF.

Martin officially took up his new position in October this year. In this new position, he will be committed to promoting the development of Nike’s digital retail strategy in Greater China, creating a highly integrated, digital-first ecosystem, and establishing closer relationships with members and consumers. contact. Currently in China, Nike directly manages more than 260 offline stores and has more than 6,500 store employees.

The first major event after he took office was the launch of the Chinese version of the Nike App. Nike’s existing digital direct retail framework has basically completed the laying out in Greater China, including: Nike App, SNKRS App, “Nike Nike” WeChat applet and Nike Tmall flagship store.

When talking about his expectations for the Nike App, Martin said: “Nike’s Tmall flagship store has performed very well, and Nike’s WeChat applet has developed very well. While the two platforms have achieved success, we have also seen these two. None of these methods can achieve the ability to further improve the service level of our consumers. Consumers’ consumption behavior and consumer expectations on Tmall are basically limited to shopping. How to motivate and lead consumers to establish better and healthier lifestyles is purely Consumer shopping platforms can’t do it yet; Nike App can do it. As far as my personal professional experience is concerned, it’s often those platforms or products that do a very good job in a certain area, rather than those that attract users. A comprehensive product. So the digital ecological strategy is very important to Nike.”

Martin does not think that there are too many apps under Nike at present, which will confuse consumers, but have to interact with members with multiple different touch points, each touch point can be well provided for athletes at different points in time Service, through these touch points to find the best combination. For example, during running training and training, NRC is needed, and users can get support and guidance immediately. The Nike App is a one-stop platform for members, providing the most accurate and personalized experience and opportunities. In addition to Nike Fit next year, Nike also plans to launch in China. Consumers will be able to use the Nike App to view the real-time inventory of all products in nearby Nike stores. They can also use the Nike App to scan product barcodes for detailed information, and then self-checkout.

Although several sports giants have begun to transform to the DTC business, no one has benefited as much as Nike. In Nike’s fiscal second-quarter earnings report for the 2020 fiscal year ending on November 30, 2019, announced last week, revenue reached 10.3 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 13% on the basis of the same exchange rate, which exceeded expectations; Revenue in China was US$1.847 billion, an increase of 23% year-on-year on the basis of unchanged exchange rates. This is the 22 consecutive quarters that Nike has maintained double-digit growth in China.

At the end of October, Nike unexpectedly announced that Mark Parker, the veteran who has served as Nike CEO for more than 13 years, will leave his post. He will be replaced by John Donahoe, who is a technical background, and he can also see Nike’s determination in digital transformation. Donahoe has joined Nike’s board of directors in 2014 and is currently the chairman and CEO of the cloud computing company ServiceNow. He also served as the chairman and CEO of eBay for seven years. If Parker is proficient in design and injects it into this classic sports brand, then Donahoe’s solid technical background will lead Nike to go further on the digital road. Parker had predicted that by 2023, one-third of Nike’s business would come from digital channels. Now, it is undoubtedly a wiser choice to hand over the position of CEO to Donahoe, who is proficient in in-depth technology.