Nike’s Customer Relationship Management

This mixing and mashing feels like New York, a city that’s constantly being built on top of itself, layering and molting with different cultures and eras butting up against each other and showing the idea of fast, movement and rapidness, portraying the sleek aesthetics of the brand.

In this regard, every floor features some level of enhanced service or personalized experience; meaning there are no ‘dead zones.’ As soon as one walks in one is immersed into the Nike world, being disconnected to the outside world. Each floor is dedicated to a specific category allowing the customer to easily embrace the experience. The front area of the store resembles a basketball court, with white flooring which has Nike messages and slogans, for example, the “Just Do It” and it has the Air Force 1s propped on a set of bleachers. It has a separate section devoted to the colour white — Tees, lightweight nylon jackets, and shorts are displayed on white rods.

There is also the use of the football as an accessory to add to the design paying tribute to basketball which has its tagline “Just Do It” all over the store. A gallery of t-shirt is placed in a circular revolver like a concert stage which has digital led advertisement on top of it, and white light eliminating the white t-shirts from the bottom. It also has custom a booth for customers to personalize their t-shirts and shoes with print. Nike By NYC is the studio where you can laser engrave and print unique NYC symbols on Nike gear. Customization is front and center as Nike is also working with local artists to produce prints that can be customized on shirts and other apparel. In addition, there is also a separate booth for personalized jerseys which are done using threads by the designer herself. Furthermore, there are also 5 basketball game booths where customers can engage in some fun and play.

Designed to deliver personalized services through trial spaces and customization, visitors can try out new products in real sports settings with tech-enhanced features. There is a fitness lounge inspired fitting rooms and instant personalization studios that set the in-store shopping experience apart from the online experience. The store also has the Nike+ Basketball Trial Zone is nearly half a court on the 5th floor with 23-foot ceilings and this floor houses Nike’s vast Jordan brand and basketball collection. Here Jordan imitators and aspiring up-and-comers can shoot hoops, test basketball shoes and do custom drills. The store’s Nike+ Running Trial Zone, located on the first floor for women and on the third floor for men, allows everyone from marathon runners to wannabes to test out shoes on a treadmill — opting for a virtual run in Central Park or along the West Side Highway.

The second floor features the largest dual-gender footwear wall in any Nike store worldwide, pning 54 feet and including more than 200 styles. The third floor Nike+ Soccer Trial Zone is a 400-square-foot space with a synthetic turf field floor for testing soccer shoes. Kids and adults can test out Nike soccer cleats and receive one-on-one guidance from in-store certified trial athletes on product features and benefits. And the Lounge is a women’s boutique within the store meant for services like bra fittings and pant hemming. The dressing rooms themselves are double the size of a standard dressing room at a Nike store, enabling stretching and lunging. One can also adjust the lighting in the rooms with a touch on a nearby panel — modes include ‘Night Run’ and ‘Yoga Studio.’ The recently released Apple Watch Nike+ is sold on the third floor and has its own separate department in the store.

Sean Madden, senior director of service and experiences for Nike’s direct-to-consumer division, mentions that the tech inside the store isn’t the main event. “These are enhanced features designed to augment the shopping experience and make it more distinctive and unique for each customer.” The Kinect sensors capture body movements and display that data on the screen in front of you impressing and making the customer feel a little giddy, as one might just be more inclined to buy the product, which is the whole aim of any retail store.

Providing best products, services and experiences under one roof. Nike Soho offers some of the hottest products – from brand-defining innovation to Nike Soho exclusives to Nike and Jordan Brand restocks including: LeBron collaboration with designer John Elliott, Air Force 1 Low NYC HS, iconic Jordan silhouettes, and local designer collaboration tees. The store also has a special display of the last pair of the Nike Mag shoe that will be auctioned on Saturday, November 12th to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The Nike Mag is on display alongside a pair of Nikes Hyper Adapt 1.0, which will go on sale in early December. For the first time, consumers can also see the collection of Nike’s 12 Soles Collection, a tribute to Nike’s deep roots in basketball with a nod to the future. The first drop of the collection will be available at Nike Soho in early December.

So much has been written and said about how retail is dead in an age where e-commerce supposedly reigns supreme. Whilst there is no doubt that the landscape has shifted considerably over recent years, Nike’s new flagship program is showing that it’s not so much that retail is dead and buried, but rather that it’s towards energizing the in-store experience that retailers should turn their focus if they want to keep shoppers coming through the front doors.

Nike’s new store offers experiences that consumers simply can’t get online, such as testing out new products in real sports play before buying. But, most importantly, the store also serves to bolster Nike’s digital strategy. Fully connected and integrated with the Nike app, even if customers walk out without making a purchase, their data is stored and accessible, and the path to future purchases – be they made at the same store, a different one, via the app or on the Nike.com website – has been decidedly lubricated. It is more than a store — it is a personal sports experience.