Generations Y and Z don't just shop online, they live online and share everything with their community. Therefore it is particularly important for brands and retailers to unite the digital world with the real world. Adidas presented part of its digital strategy at the ISPO Digitize Summit 2019.
According to Dr. Tim Janaway, the strength of adidas is that it "knows both sides. The digital, as well as the real," says the SVP of the world brand with the three stripes. On the one hand, this includes exchanging information with consumers and retailers and later combining the information gained with the findings gathered through digital tools. These include mood boards, for instance, but also a sound knowledge of the demographics of the Target Group.
By 2023, adidas aims to generate 50% of its outdoor sales digitally. To do so, a successful on-line appearance is crucial. In summary, Dr. Janaway said about the co-dependency of adidas' own online shop and retailers:
"If we don't have a good online store, the wholesalers will stay away from us. If we're not represented at wholesalers, nobody visits our online store."
Jörn Leogrande, Executive Vice President Innovation and Value Added Services at Wirecard, sees the situation somewhat gloomier. He speaks of the so-called retail apocalypse, i.e. the death of the classic high street. Another factor for this are e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Alibaba, which are increasingly relying on physical stores and thus displacing smaller companies. This happens because younger consumers tend to avoid long queues and often prefer ordering online at Prime Now or choose to use a self-checkout, as in Alibaba's stores in China. Payment is made exclusively by facial recognition at the checkout, customers only need an app to do this. Looking for more information? Simply scan the QR code attached to each item.
Since millennials often assume that a retailer could completely change his entire assortment within a month, some stores try to adapt. For instance, the Nike Concept Store in Melrose, Los Angeles, changes its product range and layout every two weeks. After the data from the Nike app has been analyzed in the vicinity of the store, the employees know exactly what the customers in the neighborhood want. A concept that could be interesting for many sports retailers.
Furthermore, retailers can no longer expect the customer to come to them in the future. Australia is already experimenting with Google Wings: Shopping is conveniently delivered with the drone. Deliveries with robots would also be conceivable. Sports retailers should consider comparable concepts as quickly as possible, so they can still compete on the market.
