World’s Top #3 Footwear Retailer Improves Marketing Performance with Netcore Cloud

In the highly competitive sports and footwear market, success isn’t just about fusing high fashion with athletic performance—it’s about delivering consistent, memorable experiences that foster long-term loyalty.

Consider terrace culture from the 80s and 90s as an example. Combine soccer kits, sneakers, and jeans, and you tap into a style movement that’s become deeply embedded in global fashion today. Isolate just the soccer kit, and you’re looking at a product fueling an $80+ billion industry. Zoom out further, and the global sports wear market as a whole is valued at over $548 billion, according to McKinsey.

For one such global sports and footwear retailer, personalized, emotionally resonant experiences were no longer a luxury; they were a necessity. They wanted interactions to be tailored so that their shoppers felt special while connecting with them online. From pro-grade apparel to fashion-forward collaborations with elite designers, this German powerhouse has done it all. It straddles heritage and hype, blending athletic performance with cultural cachet. The retailer dominates both the sports and fashion worlds. In 2023 alone, it pulled in a staggering $10+ billion in net sales across nearly every continent.

Behind the scenes, however, a legacy email infrastructure was falling behind. Sluggish campaign timelines, inflexible workflows, and missed engagement opportunities were threatening the one thing even a legacy brand can’t afford to lose—customer loyalty.

So, the retailer took a bold leap forward.

The Challenge: Navigating High-Volume Hurdles & Customer Experience Dips

The global retailer had been relying on an old, antiquated martech platform to fuel its email marketing engine. But when it mattered most, the platform buckled. During high-stakes campaigns, such as product drops and exclusive offers to over 6 million users, the platform struggled to keep up, resulting in delivery delays of 6 to 12 hours.

That kind of lag wasn’t just inconvenient—it was unacceptable.

In the world of real-time retail, those missed inbox moments translate into lost revenue, increased customer complaints, and eroded trust. The cracks weren’t just technical—they were hurting the customer experience at its core.

Additionally, the brand was operating in the dark when it came to personalization. With no way to harness transactional data effectively, they couldn’t segment audiences, recommend the next best offer, or cross-sell meaningfully. Every untapped data point was a missed opportunity to connect, convert, and build loyalty.

Something had to change.

The Solution: Netcore – Powering Performance at Scale

The quest for a future-proof solution brought this titan to Netcore. A pivotal factor in this decision was Netcore’s demonstrably robust pool IP infrastructure, meticulously engineered to manage the very high-volume sends that had become a critical bottleneck. The retailer needed speed, reliability, and rock-solid deliverability. Netcore not only promised—they delivered, kicking things off with a seamless migration completed in just six weeks.

This swift changeover minimized any operational disruption, empowering the retailer to rapidly harness its enhanced capabilities and redefine its email marketing strategy.

They enthusiastically adopted a suite of advanced features, revolutionizing their approach to email marketing:

• High-Impact Email Sending: The core email sending capabilities now serve as the engine for diverse, high-volume campaigns, seamlessly reaching meticulously defined customer segments.
• AI-Powered Send Time Optimization (STO): To cut through the noise and maximize impact, STO ensured emails arrive at the personally optimal moment for each recipient, resulting in significantly boosted open and click-through rates.
• Advanced RFM Analytics: Understanding campaign performance and customer nuances was more intuitive. Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM) analysis allowed for sophisticated user segmentation based on purchasing behaviors.

• Insightful Engagement Dashboard: This central hub provided a crystal-clear, real-time, single view of user interactions and engagement trends, offering actionable insights at a glance.
• Precision Segmentation: Advanced tools enabled hyper-precise targeting, ensuring every message resonated perfectly with the right customer, at the right time.

The Impact: Efficiency, Engagement, and Growth

The transition to Netcore had not just been a change; it was a transformation, yielding significant and measurable advantages.

Remarkable performance gains matched the surge in activity. The engagement rate increased significantly, by approximately 10–15%. There was a 4% improvement in revenue through net new customer acquisition, 23% savings were made on marketing costs, and a greater than 4% improvement in wallet share per customer was achieved within 3 months.  

Beyond the compelling numbers, the day-to-day experience for the retailer’s team had been dramatically uplifted. “The platform feels smoother and more efficient to use, with faster execution and better, quicker support whenever we need help,” they commented. 

Looking Ahead: Pioneering Deeper Customer Connections

Having already achieved strong results from their optimized setup, the progressive footwear and sports retailer is now focusing on enhancing deeper customer engagement. They’re actively exploring new use cases from Netcore’s extensive library, specifically designed for the footwear and sports wear retail space, with a sharp focus on improving retention, boosting activation, and crafting personalized engagement journeys.

This next step reflects their dedication to ongoing innovation and maximizing the full value of their partnership with Netcore.

Netcore has long been the trusted engine behind some of the world’s most iconic fashion and retail brands. From headwear giants like New Era to apparel leaders like Jack & Jones and ONLY, and from powerhouses like ALDO and Crocs to fast-moving online retailers such as Tobi, Myntra (Walmart), Ajio, StarQuik (Tata), and Nykaa Fashion, Netcore continues to drive impact at scale across the global fashion ecosystem.

The Future of Global Retail Engagement is Powered by Agility

In an evolving global marketplace, the ability to connect, engage, and convert at scale, without friction, is non-negotiable. For brands with international ambitions, a robust, agile, and reliable platform isn’t just an advantage—it’s fundamental.

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