News

Nike prepping footwear sizing feature for app, retail stores

May 10, 2019

Nike wants to make sure its customers buy footwear that fits and is prepping a Nike Fit functionality in its app and within physical store locations to make that happen.

The in-development Nike Fit feature, due to launch in July, scans a shopper’s feet to determine size. The retailer claims more than half of consumers are wearing wrong sized footwear, according to a CNBC report.

"Fit is such a big friction point for our customers," Michael Martin, Nike's global head of digital products, told CNBC. "We reached a point of realizing this was not just the biggest problem but biggest transformational opportunity that we have. ... No matter how good the shoe is, if the foot doesn't fit well within the shoe, you're not going to get peak performance from it."

The retailer expects the sizing functionality to reduce returns, provide greater supply chain efficiency, as well as spur more footwear purchases.

Product returns cost retailers $550 billion by 2020, according to a Shopify report.

The Nike Fit, according to CNBC, has been quietly tested for six months in three stores, and early results indicate greater sales conversion and less return activity.