CESAR DE CASTRO | NIKE | Three C's of Shopping

Three C’s of Shopping

Creating A Seamless E-Commerce Journey

E-COMMERCE

Needs over desire often acts as the primary arbiter in purchase decisions. Socio-cultural influences can also steer considerations a certain way. In shopping, how one enters this dynamic can shape the transactional path. For desired brands, it’s less about utility or specific sets of features, but ultimately aspiration to live life as personified by the brand. Decisions are not based on the price of entry, but instead about immediacy—a seamless transference of attaining what’s promised.

Content + Commerce + Community

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Established e-commerce sites are extremely similar in their experience. Many use templated platforms developed for enterprise companies. Businesses like Amazon, Magento/eBay and Shopify offer turn-key solutions. But with premium brands, building a proprietary e-commerce is imperative in creating a differentiated brand experience.

Nike was looking to aggressively maximize sales online without sacrificing brand equity. With a catalog of key properties—running, women, basketball, football, soccer, etc., each with its own story to tell—it demanded more than existing systems to deliver value. Even with product extensions like Nike-ID where you can custom design your shoe or Nike Lab for unique ventures in apparel and footware, creating an online experience that seamlessly integrates transactional function without compromising these property narratives required meticulous care.

While continuing to develop rich inspirational content, the focus was to create an equally refined online shopping experience which seamlessly wove both e-commerce and content within one another. They wanted two types of shopping—brand boutique and general express shopping—to blend as one quick and richly fulfilling journey.

Another component to the shopping experience was about cultivating influencers by creating a place where ideas and decisions drive enthusiasm, brand advocacy, and new customers. The strategy was to build discrete areas and programs where inclusive communities and social circles can hang out and indulge in their passions.

By understanding three core customer segments—casual shopper, fitness loyalist, sneakerhead—Nike was able to tailor paths and features to increase the propensity to transact, boost retention, and grow brand advocacy.

Casual Shopper

Fitness Loyalist

Sneakerhead

Creating A Seamless
E-Commerce Journey

Design Principles

Iterative projects benefit from design principles to guide and focus its evolution.

– Delight People

– Make An Impact

– Tailor To Individuals

– Simplify For Speed

– Reward Participation

Rethinking Points Of Entry

Whether driven through external search or marketing channels, it’s important that a product property maintain its individual identity at the point of entry. By tailoring paths per customer segment, engagement is elevated by quickly getting them to their destination in the manner, style, and voice that energizes them. With shared structuring of content, purchase process, and social functionality, a richer, individually branded product property doesn’t get compromised into the typical blandness of general commerce.

Storytelling To Inspire And Drive Purchase

Everyone loves an inside view of a product’s development. Seeing and hearing the ideas and thoughts behind particular designs can be magic. Sharing a star athlete’s point-of-view adds richness by demonstrating Nike’s products in action—signature features, training tips, field advantage, etc. It allows people to shop and compare through storytelling. People are able to confidently make the right purchase for them by identifying with specific product narratives that mirror their needs and aspirations.

Expanding Sales While Collapsing Check-Out Speed

An aspect of shopping is trying things on to validate choices while finding complementary items to live the fuller Nike experience. By giving people simple tools beyond filtering products—like a changing room—a level of self driven personalization can increase shopping activities. The effect results in a more assured purchase while expanding sales for Nike. Couple features like these with a streamlined three-step checkout that reduce transaction speeds and you create a happier customer with more time to enjoy the fun part of shopping and less time processing payments.

Embracing Socialized Decisions

Not everyone is driven to Nike.com with an eye on making a purchase. Many are interested in the stories of Nike’s athletes, insights on improving personal performance, or the style culture behind the brand. They’re compelled to visit the site in order to access content and media not available at other places. Nike sees this as an opportunity to connect. By offering My Nike—a locker for all things Nike—it gives Nike a way to share exclusive content, targeted products, tailored promotions, and special events. It’s recognizing that social connections can influence people’s decisions by feeding their passions, ultimately creating a path for them to transact.