JD Finish Line expands digital transformation and grows revenue with Sitecore

Over several years Finish Line, a premium US sports shoes, apparel, and accessories retailer, has built up an enviable shopping brand and reputation for its omnichannel capability. The company’s recent acquisition by UK retailer JD Sports boosted Finish Line’s business strength and store development. Now the Indianapolis headquartered retailer has 807 locations – comprising JD Sports and Finish Line branded shops - in US malls and in Macy’s department stores. Underpinning the company’s success has been a digital transformation strategy which Finish Line continuously develops and evolves. One area where the company wanted to make improvements was how customers browsed, searched and purchased products online.

Finish Line has over 12,000 products to present to customers online. As part of the digital transformation program, the company wanted to streamline product merchandising to give customers a premium experience. Some product promotion processes, for example, were manual. With the right technology the company knew it could increase efficiency and connect with more customers. Finish Line turned to Sitecore for a solution.

JD Finish Line deployed Sitecore Discover – part of Sitecore’s composable range of solutions – to optimize product merchandising. JD Finish Line uses Sitecore to gather data on product searches, product listing page performance and product recommendations. This creates the development of a seamless, personalized product experience automatically, at every customer touch point and on any device including both the JD Sports and Finish Line apps.

Using Sitecore A/B testing, JD Finish Line can make data driven merchandising decisions that reflect changing customer demands and business needs.

The AI-driven performance analytics gained allow JD Finish Line to know accurately how previews, searches and recommendations on the website are performing. Having countless pieces of data has allowed for endless testing opportunities to meet and adjust to customer shopping behaviors. Armed with this level of data, JD Finish Line can quickly make changes to improve the customer experience.

With the help from Sitecore, JD Finish Line serves millions of customers individually with personalized, relevant and real time product results helping them make quicker buying decisions. The business has seen double digit increases in conversion rates through both search and product listing page (PLP) performance, ultimately driving higher customer engagement and loyalty.

With Sitecore as part of the JD Finish Line digital transformation strategy, the company has seen a 24% increase in conversions on search and PLP when a returning customer clicks on Sitecore-recommended products. In addition, average revenue by return visit have risen by 22%.

As a part of the continued digital transformation journey, JD Finish Line is expanding omnichannel experiences for customers and increasing and deepening personalization. It is extending the digital strategy to support other brands in the business such as Shoe Palace while also continuing to invest in increased opportunities for additional personalization across its customer loyalty program, STATUS.