Nike+ Membership at Retail
Animated videos to illustrate how tangible Nike+ benefits can enhance customer’s shopping experience in store.
Background
Nike Stores team was challenged in recruiting new Nike+ members at retail. After putting up Nike+ brand signage all over the stores with catch phrases like “Plus Means More”, and training store staff to memorize a list of Member Benefits, nothing seemed to have worked. The VP of Nike Stores came to me for help.
We started an in-store research session by talking to staff members and shoppers, and uncovered 2 main challenges. One was that Nike+ Member Benefits were unclear to both the customers and the store staff. Two was that the member sign-up process was full of friction and pain points.
Member Benefits, such as “Nike+ unlocks best coaching and advice”, didn’t hold much tangible meaning to the customers when they shop. Store staff had a hard time because they didn’t understand how to incorporate the benefits when they talk to the customers. Our hypothesis was that it’s more effective to present one or two benefits that are highly relevant to where the customer is in their shopping journey, than the long list of all benefits. For example, the benefit of “easy return without a receipt” is much more relevant at checkout than “receiving expert coaching”. To test it out, we invited real store staff to help run scenarios, gather feedback and refine the customer experience.
To help the store team understand the new approach, we created a series of animated videos to illustrate how tangible Nike+ benefits can enhance the customer’s in-store shopping experience. These greatly helped the Store Training team understand the end vision and create better training materials. It also helped the Membership team to refine and better articulate their membership offering on other platforms such as on Nike.com.
Another challenge we uncovered through in-store research was around the actual sign-up process. Once a customer was convinced to sign up for Nike+ membership, the staff needed to track down an iPad, navigate to Nike.com and pull up the sign-up page, by which point the customer had already regretted the decision.
To facilitate member sign-up, we worked with the tech team to develop and pilot a new app on the store mobile devices that every staff member carries. It provided the quickest way to sign up a new member. It also enabled staff to look up existing members and see their past purchases. Equipping store staff with member information laid a great foundation for more personalized services.
My Role
As the Director of Customer Experience for Global Brand DTC (Direct to Consumer), I led a team of 4 Brand Managers and a digital agency. I led and directed my team in identifying the root cause of the problem, creating and testing solutions. I drove the in-store Customer Experience strategy, partnered with Store Ops and Tech team to better equip the staff members to better serve the customers. I presented the strategy to the VP of Nike Stores and functional leaders within Global and North America DTC for approval to deploy.
Impact
The result was a highly successful launch of the digital app and the membership training materials across all North America fleet including Factory Stores in March of 2016, achieving an average of 200k/year new member sign-up at physical retail, serving roughly 10-15 million existing members/year. We’ve created a framework that continues to be leveraged as the membership programs grow.
Staff digital app
To facilitate member sign-up, we worked with the tech team to develop and pilot a new app on store mobile devices that every staff member carries. It provided the quickest way to sign up a new member. It also enabled staff to look up existing members and see their past purchases. Equipping store staff with member information laid a great foundation for a more personalized service.
