With new products bolstering online sales of apparel and footwear, Nike came out ahead of Wall Street quarterly estimates. The company’s stock rose 7 percent on the news on Thursday (Dec. 20), Reuters reported.
Nike has grown online retail partnerships over a period of more than a year, and it has also hastened the speed of new item releases. Reuters reported that Nike’s online sales jumped by 41 percent during the quarter and its digital sales increased by over 30 percent “in its home market.” During the quarter, the company’s cost of sales increased by 8 percent along with an 8.5 percent jump in revenue in North America.
The report also noted that efforts to speed up Nike’s supply chain to deliver new styles to its stores aided the company in grabbing market share from Adidas in North America. On an analyst call, Nike Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker said, according to Reuters, “It’s clear that the consumers are craving experiences and the fastest way to meet that demand is to test, learn and scale new features.”
The news on earnings comes as Nike took a digital approach with its New York City flagship called Nike NYC, with the help of smartphones. Nike Chief Digital Officer Adam Sussman told Bloomberg in November, “Mobile is at the center of people’s everyday life, and when people come into the store, they come in with their digital device. We want to create a seamless connection between the physical and digital experience.”
In one case, Nike is providing an Instant Checkout experience that enables NikePlus program members to scan their items and paying through the program’s app instead of visiting the cash register. The retailer also offers a Shop The Look service that taps into quick-response code technology. With that offering, shoppers can scan a quick-response (QR) code to find out the available colors and sizes of the items displayed on a mannequin.
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