Nike Makes the Integration of Digital and Physical Retail a Reality

Nike has created an amazing store in New York City that truly integrates the digital experience with physical retail. The worlds of physical and digital are not really separated for consumers the way we may have thought says Heidi O’Neil, the President Nike Direct. Clearly, brick and mortar retail is not dead, it’s just changing and Nike is showing the world how it can be done.

Heidi O’Neil, President of Nike Direct and Sean Madden, Senior Director of Product at Nike Direct were interviewed about Nike’s New NYC technologically enhanced flagship store by Katherine Schwab of Fast Company. You can watch the full video below:

Physical and Digital Together Create an Incredible Consumer Experience

“It’s interesting with all of the medium crests around the death of retail, what we found, at least with our Nike consumers, is over 80 percent of consumers actually want a physical experience as part of their shopping experience,” says Heidi O’Neil, President of Nike Direct. “The worlds of physical and digital are not really separated for consumers the way we may have thought about it when we were thinking about the death of retail. In fact, they can really support each other to make an incredible consumer experience.”

Get Every Item on a Mannequin Head-To-Toe Digitally

“When you come in you’ll be welcome to Nike New York,” explained Sean Madden, Senior Director of Product, Nike Direct. “On the smartphone screen is what we call Retail Home. We found based on a lot of research that consumers really love mannequins, but they get really frustrated when they can’t find the product that’s on the mannequin. Is it in your size? Is it in your color?

“We’ve built a system where the consumer can simply scan a QR code and they’ll get every item that a mannequin is dressed in from head-to-toe digitally,” said Madden. “We’ve also enabled consumers to build a virtual Try-On List. They can then choose their size and have it sent right to their fitting room.”

Smart Fitting Rooms Offer Lighting Options

“Not only will the product will be waiting for you in the fitting room we’ve also introduced the ability for you to customize the look with lighting so you can see how the product looks on you and will perform in different lighting conditions,” he said. “We want consumers to understand how the product will look in different conditions, especially the New Yorker who is going from their house to sport to work to life and they want a product that can flex with them. They also take a lot of selfies in fitting rooms so good light and an interesting room really helps with that.”

Data Powers the New Nike Speed Shop

“We use data to inform the assortment with New Yorkers favorites in the Speed Shop,” said O’Neil. “Then what we’re also able to do from a data perspective is we’re able to take all the selling information and all the data from what’s happening in the five other floors of the store to have a trendy now experience in the Speed Shop. So as a New Yorker you don’t have to spend half the day here, a couple hours there, you can just go and say I’m getting the absolute best of this store curated for me and refreshed in the day, in the hour.”