Nike hits 500 million app users
"Our fastest-growing channel" says CEO and former technology executive John Donahoe
Nike’s ongoing drive to draw in customers directly via its suite of applications continued to gain pace – with its four apps attracting a massive 500 million users in the last quarter, earnings showed.
The sports and leisurewear company has been driving hard to a more direct and member-centric ecommerce business model, since the pandemic disrupted bricks-and-mortar, forcing an ecommerce pivot.
That has been led by CEO John Donahoe, a former technology executive who has had leadership positions at ServiceNow and eBay.
Nike’s digital share of business nearly tripled to 26% in fiscal 2023 from 10% in fiscal 2019, its annual report showed on June 29, 2023.
That has been underpinned increasingly significantly by four applications (SNKRS, the NIKE Mobile App, NTC and NRC) that have become “our fastest-growing channel” as Nike CEO John Donahoe said on a call.
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CEO John Donahoe said: “This is all powered by our membership offense.
“We know our consumers better and are better able to serve them with data-driven insights fueling our end-to-end value chain, including product creation, marketing, and merchandising. This is translating into sustainable and profitable growth for NIKE. We believe this growth will only accelerate as we add new capabilities to serve consumers at scale.”
A formidable marketing machine has helped drive customers to these channels. Fiscal 2023 Q4 earnings on June 29 showed that “demand creation” expenses hit a massive $1.1 billion for the quarter “primarily due to sports marketing, and advertising and marketing expense”
NIKE Direct revenues were $5.5 billion, up 18% year-on-year on a currency-neutral basis. That was led by NIKE-owned stores growth of 24% NIKE Brand Digital growth of 14%. Annual revenues hit $51.2 billion.
