Adidas Group India plans shopping app

Sportshoe brand Adidas Group India is planning to launch a shopping app by December, primarily to drive customer engagement through content and loyalty programs, as well as boost online sales.

It is a significant move as it indicates increasing fragmentation in online fashion shopping, as most brands do not have independent shopping apps, reports Live Mint.

With its app, Adidas is aiming to strengthen its online presence as brands and offline retailers adopt omnichannel strategies to offer customers access to products across physical stores via their mobile phones and websites.

“Our engagement with consumers does not end in incremental sales,” says Adidas Group India’s senior eCommerce director Abhishek Lal. “Shopping is just a small fraction. We are planning an app and rewards program to increase engagement with the brand.”

Separate apps will be rolled out for Adidas and its subsidiary Reebok India.

Adidas is currently available on online stores such as Amazon India, Flipkart and Myntra, and online channels contribute 10 to 15 per cent of the company’s overall sales, says Lal.

Other brands are already building online stores to reduce their dependence on the likes of Amazon India and Myntra. Leading the way is Madura Garments with two online stores, Abof and Trendin. Its brands include Allen Solly, Louis Philippe and Peter England.

By launching an app, Adidas is also trying to tap into social commerce by offering content and creating communities of fashion followers.

“Social commerce is complementary to pure play eCommerce, and also the way forward for us,” says Lal. “There is no history of a single-brand app yet, so it is hard to assess what the outcome will be.”

Adidas has also expanded its omnichannel presence since its launch early last year. Adidas plans to bring about 400 stores under the omni-channel loop by December. Those already involved in the strategy have had their revenue grow about 3 to 5 per cent.

“There has been some impact on revenue because of omni-channel,” says Lal. “A lot of sales were lost because sizes were not available in stores. There was also a lot of cross-selling. We have a brand called Neo which is available only online, so a lot of people walked into the stores and bought Neo on the tab. That is an upsell opportunity.”