What all retailers can learn from the evolution of Niketown

It's nearly twenty years ago since I first met and began working with iconic design consultant Tom Ancona who had helped develop the original Niketown retail store concepts. He showed me around the Oxford Street branch in the heart of London’s West End. He explained how the environment was designed to inspire and entertain visitors as much as deliver retail transactions. In celebrating athletes around the world, at all levels of play— the aim was to inspire consumers to all "get out and play".

At the time I was a little sceptical and felt that this was rather brand indulgent, and that Nike were relying too heavily on celebrity sports men and women to do the heavy lifting in store, and that the actual touchpoint of the product got a little lost in the mix. Yet, two decades on, I've realised my shortsightedness - something that the latest evolution of flagship retail spaces has taught me.

Even as the High St has struggled to survive alongside online shopping, retail still has a social importance, with real conversations. Its role as inspiration has shifted though - less dependent on celebrities, and more towards personalising the customer experience - even if only as a showroom-and-fit service, be it an item of clothing, a vehicle or a bathroom.

Does this personalising have a genuine commercial fit too? Absolutely and literally. An example is the "Bra Fit by Nike Fit" service - a kind of smart measuring tape that uses in-house-developed artificial intelligence and algorithms to give size recommendations across all the different types of sports bras that Nike sells, once the consumer or store staff has entered her size information into its system. Given concerns of COVID-19, Nike has designed this to be something that a shopper can take her own measurements (engaging them in the process) rather than relying on a store employee to do it. All the information is saved to her profile to seamlessly access it when shopping online later, or in-store.

In a post-Covid world, retail's potential as a place of entertainment outside of work and home is enhanced - an opportunity to feel alive amongst the vibrancy of sound, smell, touch and taste.

Flagship retail stores are becoming a media channel in their own right for brands

Perhaps most profoundly, we're witnessing an extraordinary swapping of roles between media and physical spaces. Flagship retail stores are becoming a media channel in their own right for brands, a part of the marketing mix, whilst media, especially online channels, are becoming the transactional store. 

Niketown has kept up with this evolution, with its House of Innovation stores featuring not just the latest in body measurement tech, but interactive gaming and even a-360 degree virtual parcour running game (very urban cool!). Its stated mission is "to bring inspiration and innovation to every 'athlete' in the world."

These new Innovation stores offer not just personalisation but involvement too, where visitors get hands-on and actively participating - something that is ideally suited to the retail channel, and could perhaps appear as a pop-up store variant too - Nike is quite capable of surprising us after all.

THE TAKEOUT: Flagship stores such as Niketown are demonstrating to all retailers that the store of the future, even a run-of-the-mill branch outlet, has to work harder than simply 'sell stuff' to survive. Retail experiences need to be S-U-P-E-R, as Canadian futurist Doug Stevens summarises it:

• Surprising - offering moments of unexpected delight, that fits the brand but in new, unusual ways
• Unique - features and benefits that are exclusive to the brand we're buying from - a signature aspect
• Personalised - to the individual and their needs
• Engaging - not just a nice place to be shopping in, but to be an active participant
• Repeatable - delivering excellence each time, at each touchpoint, year after year

I think that's the lesson that Tom Ancona was trying to teach me in 2001 - and one that all retailers now need to graduate from.

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About Customer Faithful

Customer Faithful is a multi-disciplinary research consultancy, dedicated to highlighting unmet need in customer, patient and employee experience.

With team backgrounds in customer experience, clinical psychology and data analysis, we all bring the same level of focus - making qualitative insight as accessible as possible and delivering valuable research findings that are easy to apply. 

Our market research helps businesses to really understand what their customers want and need from organisations. We identify their experiences (great and not so great) to help our clients develop ideas that can drive sales, profit and retain their best people. 

We think that’s what all research providers should care about, but from what our clients tell us, most simply don’t!