Outrunning the Competition With New Ecommerce Sites

A large part of Foot Locker’s business relies on flash sales of the hottest brand name releases and the simulated experience couldn’t withstand the traffic load at these peak shopping periods. Foot Locker needed a platform that could outperform and outlast the demands of flash traffic associated with promotional events, such as specialty shoe and apparel launches and unique athlete-branded collaborations. Given the importance of these peak traffic events, both in terms of customer loyalty and sales revenue, Guidance was challenged to complete the entire native mobile site in under 90 days with almost zero downtime.

Not only was Guidance able to deliver the mobile experience in under 90 days, the mobile architecture became a paradigm foundation for all future desktop code. The many disparate codes were unified under one platform with a common code base for all the brands; Guidance had built the modern approach to microservices in a time when those were still in their infancy. Furthermore, the mobile site experience opened new channels for site improvement and optimization.

Foot Locker’s new mobile platform exposed the ability to unify inventory across brick and mortar locations and has enabled the very powerful Buy Online, Pickup in Store. Mobile users are able to select “Ship to Store” pick-up for increased customer satisfaction and a reduction in shipping costs. Moreover, by verifying the shipping address during checkout, Foot Locker has been able to reduce delivery costs and allowed customers to evaluate and purchase in-store inventory whenever possible.

Flash Sales for the Win

Flash sales are a huge part of Foot Locker’s brand—they attract loyal customers looking for the latest product launches and many brands look to Foot Locker for the partnership in releasing their new products. To accommodate flash sales traffic, Guidance created queuing systems and used load balancers to manage the high influx of customers during these peak sales periods. To ensure stability and business continuity, Guidance helped develop a predefined set of inventory and capacity requirements to meet customer demand.

Guidance’s custom developed “waiting room” or queuing system made Foot Locker’s flash sales a possibility. All customers were able to benefit from enhancements to the infrastructure and stability that are experienced during the flash sales periods. Furthermore, the queuing system that enabled the flash sales success helped strengthen Foot Locker's partnerships with various shoe manufacturers. Foot Locker is now known as a go-to reseller of the hottest footwear. Foot Locker and its sister brands went from selling hundreds of newly launched products to tens of thousands of new products during every flash sale.

Gaining the Lead with New Solutions

As part of the code unification and development of the mobile platform, Guidance partnered with Foot Locker to create marketing solutions that have established them as leaders in their space. Foot Locker was one of the first in its industry to create loyalty rewards for its customers, where users can earn points towards different levels of achievement. Subscribed members receive exclusive discounts, promotions, free shipping and a dedicated call-in number for questions and support. Guidance helped Foot Locker develop resource guides for their customers across all the brands. Customers can access a library of resources featuring exclusive videos, athlete interviews, buying guides, product reviews, training tips and more. The “Athlete Resource Center” is broken down by different sports and is focused on an elite level of play.

Guidance developed the sites to honor “advertised price” agreements with various brands while maintaining market competitiveness. On the product detail page (PDP), users are offered the ability to view a possibly lower Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) in their shopping cart (sometimes even lower than the brand’s own website) and this has established Foot Locker’s reputation for unbeatable pricing.