How Adidas is Using Customized Landing Pages to Boost Ecommerce

Brought to you by WBR Insights

Personalization is a big deal right now, with a massive 71 percent of companies using it to one degree or another - an increase of nine percent from 2014 to 2018.

Of those companies which have implemented some form of personalization, 80 percent have reported an uplift in business as a result, with even basic personalization seeing a sales uplift of eight percent. This is reflected from the other side of the metaphorical counter as well, with 80 percent of consumers stating they would be more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized services and/or recommendations, and 59 percent saying that personalized engagement based on past interactions is very important to winning their business.

As a major retailer of sporting goods, Adidas knows how important it is for its fitness and style-conscious audience to be able to find the equipment they need. That's why the brand has been driving its digital transformation with some ambitious new ideas.

Adidas

The sports brand has long been focused almost exclusively on brick and mortar retail, but it's becoming increasingly clear that the future of the company lies in ecommerce and hybrid business models.

"The most important store we have in the world is .com, period," said Adidas CEO, Kasper Rorsted. "This is reflected in the company's ecommerce revenue target of EUR4bn by 2020 and its aim to derive 60 percent of sales from channels it controls. A lot of companies struggle in the transformation from brick-and-mortar to a much more hybrid model, but Adidas doesn't seem to be suffering the same challenges. Its ongoing digital transformation helped it achieve eight percent currency-neutral sales growth overall last year, while increasing operating profit by 14 percent."

And nobody could accuse Adidas of being unambitious with its digital transformation. The company has a goal of completely digitizing its entire operation - from product creation to point of sale - and has been partnering with huge technology names such as Salesforce Marketing, Commerce, and Service Cloud to help achieve it.

However, this dramatic strategy is not simply some top-down corporate decision, but a true response to the changing demands of consumers and what they expect from the brands they choose to do business with online.

"The age of sub-par performance in digital is gone, because the people who are now engaging in those experiences know the speed of a site," said Head of Digital Brand Commerce, Joseph Godsey. "They know what good looks like. Improving digital capabilities along the entire value chain enables us not only to interact with the consumer, but also to become faster, better, and more efficient in every part of the organization."

The ultimate expression of Adidas's commitment to delivering next-generation digital experiences leverages the power of personalization - from the moment a customer arrives at its website.

Personalization

Don't forget that Adidas is not just a sports brand, but a fashion brand as well. This means it cannot afford to take a wait and see approach to digital innovation — it must be looking to set the latest trends itself.

Taking a customer-centered approach, Adidas is looking to create an entirely new experience for those consumers engaging with it on computers and mobile. Adidas has a vision that, when a customer arrives at its web platform, they will be greeted not by a generic homepage, but rather a personalized version of the portal based on their own interests.

"It's not a question of if or when," said Vice President of Digital Experience Design, Jacqueline Smith-Dubendorfer. "It's happening now, and we need to lead and be able to respond to those consumer expectations immediately. So, if you're not meeting their expectation at that first point, you've lost them straight away."

The personalized homepage will be created using information gathered and processed by the Salesforce data management platform. For example, if the customer is a fan of the UK soccer team, Manchester United - for which Adidas is a key sponsor - the Salesforce platform will be able to identify this and create a personalized landing page with imagery and product recommendations relevant to them. This will be the case whether the customer is accessing the Adidas ecommerce site using a computer or a mobile device.

"We know from research that 56 percent of online purchases are made on mobile," said Salesforce Regional Vice President, Jayne Howson. "So, the Adidas mobile website is incredibly important real estate, an incredibly important shop window. By using artificial intelligence, Adidas delivers products and experiences that are the most relevant to a consumer first."

Final Thoughts

Personalization is a powerful tool in the digital marketer's kitbag and, while some brands may be content to limit its use to product recommendations and email blasts, Adidas is continuing its innovative digital transformation by ensuring it permeates every part of its online presence.

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You can hear Adidas's Senior Manager of Data Analytics, Chitralekha Rath speak at eTail West 2020, being held in February, at the JW Marriott, Palm Springs, CA.

Please download the agenda today for more information and insights.