The case for omnichannel personalization: Beyond the sale
Omnichannel personalization is the new frontier. Here, we explore how brands can build customer loyalty by delivering personalized experiences on the channels that matter most.
Retail today is about much more than just selling products. It’s about personalized retail experiences. It’s about that moment of wow when a brand takes all the data they’ve collected from a user and puts it to good use with perfectly targeted content and offers.
A brand that gets this right is adidas. They have fitness and training apps like Runtastic that are separate from their commerce app and designed to help users stay fit and healthy.
Brands like adidas are expanding their presence in the lives of their customers by providing digital experiences that make a positive impact with the help of hyper-personalization.
The new retail playbook: Personalized retail
For example, instead of offering blanket workout suggestions, Runtastic gets smarter over time and changes content and recommendations based on sports the customer actually engages with on the app out of the 90+ offered. Being able to provide the content users care about most at the time that works best for them is not only a good idea for driving engagement among monthly active users, but can also have a material impact on sales.
But first and foremost, the goal of the running and training apps deployed by adidas are to foster engagement. And it’s clear that consumers are connecting with their message because Runtastic been downloaded over 300 million times. adidas is operating from a new retail playbook.
The app doesn’t push products onto users. Instead, Runtastic lets commerce take a backseat to fitness in order to build a true relationship with customers who use the app.
And that’s an important aspect of this long-term strategy: adidas is building a raving fan base that’s enthusiastic about opening the app each day and pushing their bodies. With guided and solo workout routines, nutrition information, sustainability challenges, and a supportive community, users might choose to tap over to an adidas commerce app from Runtatsic, but this is a purely organic conversion.
A perfect fit for modern marketing
Similarly, Nike has used its fitness app ecosystem to drive engagement during COVID, and for good reason: these branded fitness apps are a first-party data gold mine.
They give brands key insights into what sports users participate in and how often. This can be leveraged to personalize marketing offers across channels. Emailing an avid runner about your new trainers after they’ve completed 200 or more miles of trail running that year is much more likely to lead to a purchase, compared to a batch email to anyone in the system.
First-party data provides the context needed to deliver relevant messages and personalized retail. Experiential apps like these serve as the gateway for on-target offers. This combination is as good as gold to brands: a captive audience that comes for the beneficial content and happily gets enmeshed in the branded ecosystem.
The timing couldn’t be better for brands like adidas to formalize their position as more than purveyors. With new entrants coming into the market around the clock, all retailers must achieve true differentiation to keep up and get ahead.
Direct-to-consumer channels are now an expectation. Offering an engaging fitness experience that can help customers reach their goals gives brands like adidas and Nike a way to build genuine relationships with customers and be top of mind when a fitness apparel need arises.
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Building real relationships and driving growth
McKinsey found that Nike’s SNKRS, Run Club, and Training Club apps “allow Nike to create experiences that go far beyond their shoe and apparel lines and fold the brand into an individual’s day-to day-routines. Omni ecosystems like these also help retailers expand into adjacent business models.”
In order to remain competitive, brands need to establish new ways to reach and boost engagement with their customers. As the market gets further saturated, leading brands will experiment further to find out what builds real relationships with customers and encourages them to consider diverse products and experiences.
The endgame that adidas and Nike so masterfully display is to move beyond core offerings and start building future growth drivers today.
