+9.6% 30-day revenue per user
+115 % incremental mobile ROI
+27 % AOV
27× ROI
Discover the impact of a truly mobile-first strategy had on adidas’ customer engagement and bottom-line results
When we at adidas committed to rebuilding its mobile experience at the start of 2024, our team’s ambitions were straightforward: grow an engaged SMS list without cheapening the brand, help shoppers find the perfect product faster, and—perhaps most importantly—prove that the revenue driven by a phone doesn’t end at the checkout page. By mid-summer, the project had evolved into a masterclass in personalized commerce that lifted average order value by 27%, uncovered 115 % more mobile-driven revenue than last-click reports showed, and generated a 27× return on every text they sent.
Goal
Growing (and qualifying) the list
Before we could personalize, it needed permission to speak. Switching on Attentive’s two-tap pop-up meant visitors no longer had to pinch-zoom or fight small form fields. The brand layered in a single question—“Which sport do you shop for most?”—to collect valuable first-party data at the very first touch.
The result was immediate: opt-in rates jumped from 0.8% to 2.1% and 34,000 new subscribers joined in just eight weeks. Better still, that sport-preference answer drove a conversational welcome journey that earned a 1 % click-through rate and set expectations that adidas texts would always feel personal.
Execution
Designing the personalized storefront
With permission (and context) secured, we replaced static banners with Insider’s Smart Recommender. The AI quietly rearranged home-page tiles and injected “Complete the look” bundles on product pages. Shoppers who once scrolled through five screens to find their size now saw a perfectly matched outfit in a single swipe.
Four weeks after launch:
Product views per session climbed 42 %.
Time-to-add-to-cart fell from two minutes to under one.
Average order value rose from $84 to $107—a 27 % lift that held steady across full-price and discount buyers.
Turning intent into revenue—one journey at a time
The next milestone was to engage at the exact moment a shopper showed intent. We scripted seven automated journeys—welcome, browse abandonment, price-drop, low-stock, back-in-stock, checkout abandonment, and win-back—and let Attentive handle send-time optimization.
A single price-drop alert (“Your Ultraboost 24s just dropped $30—still want them?”) averaged a 24% click-through rate, a 10% conversion rate, and a jaw-dropping 76× ROI. Low-stock and checkout nudges posted similarly head-turning numbers, proving that relevance, not frequency, drives action.
Predicting the next purchase instead of reacting to the last one
List growth and AI recommendations generated a flood of new data—everything from favorite sports to coupon sensitivity. The CRM team rolled those signals into an in-house propensity score ranging from 0.00 to 1.00. Subscribers above 0.80 now receive full-price early-access drops; those in the mid-range get a gentle 10 % nudge after three days of browsing; the bargain hunters at the bottom see a richer win-back offer paired with editorial content about sustainability.
By letting the score, not gut instinct, dictate incentives, adidas cut discount cost per order by 14% while raising checkout conversion 11%. Margin and velocity, together at last.
Proving that mobile traffic walks into stores
The final challenge was political, not technical: finance wanted proof that mobile media deserved the lion’s share of the budget. The eCommerce and retail teams collaborated on a clever experiment. Twenty-four hours after a shopper tapped the online store locator but failed to transact, Attentive fired an SMS deep-linking directly to Google Maps. 7% of those recipients walked through a store door within 48 hours and spent 22% more than the average in-store customer.
Suddenly, what looked like a modest online campaign revealed a 115% incremental mobile ROI once offline revenue was counted—ending the budget debate overnight.
Hiccups on the track (and how we hurdled them)
Early message fatigue. In week one the abandon-cart flow collided with the price-drop journey, pushing some shoppers from curious to annoyed. Unsubscribes spiked to 1.8%. Attentive’s send-time AI resolved the overlap and capped outreach at three texts per week, establishing, churn below 0.6%.
Real-time inventory gaps. A handful of Snapchat ads promoted out-of-stock sizes. Hourly catalogue refreshes, coupled with a “See available sizes” safety net, cured the mis-match.
Attribution skepticism. Store managers questioned whether texts really influenced footfall. A POS match-back study traced SMS recipients to loyalty-card transactions, delivering the missing proof that joined online intent with offline spend.
Results
The numbers at the finish line
Over the first 90 days:
Average order value rose 27%.
Revenue per user climbed 9.6%.
SMS marketing returned 27× every dollar invested.
Snapchat ROAS improved 12%.
Incremental mobile ROI—after including retail spend—jumped 115%.
Repeat purchase: 24% of SMS subscribers placed at least two orders within 12 months; 1 3% placed three or more.
Creative moments that made a difference
The work was more than metrics; it was moments of delight.
The two-tap welcome text paired a 15% voucher with quick-reply sport emojis that felt more like chat than marketing.
“Back in stock” MMS messages used high-contrast product shots and a single “Tap to check out” button to remove every ounce of friction.
A VIP early-access drop for adiClub Gold members sold out limited-edition Copa boots in 42 minutes—and generated screenshots that flooded social media.