Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 E-Commerce Growth Hacking podcast, hosted by Caroline Baldwin, gets under the hood of highly successful e-commerce brands to discover the key technologies they are using to power growth.
Kick Game is an omnichannel footwear and apparel brand which stocks exclusive, collectable and rare sneakers and streetwear by big names such as Nike, Off-White, Air Jordan and Yeezy. Launched in 2013, Kick Game ships worldwide via its popular Shopify webstore and also operates through six UK retail stores.
We spoke with CEO of Kick Game, Alicia Thompson, who shared her story of how the brand charged through ongoing retail challenges with a solid online marketing strategy and achieved 353% revenue growth, leading them to nab 4th fastest-growing brand in the UK in the Brightpearl Lightning 50. She also revealed how the business intends to maintain high levels of growth going forwards.
Here are some of the highlights from the transcript…
- “Kick Game started nine years ago but our growth has truly been phenomenal in the last three years. Essentially we’re an omnichannel sneaker reseller – we have a Shopify online store and six physical stores in the UK, and in recent years we’ve been really focused on our product and marketing to help us grow.”
- “We’ve really focused on online content through different channels. We always knew people would come back to the high street, so we wanted to lead with digital but also gear up for the fact that real-life retail was still important. We’re using our physical stores to engage with our customers and create in-store digital content and encourage user-generated content; basically pushing those two sides so that they coalesce from a marketing perspective.”
- “We started our first YouTube shows at the start of Covid. Our Covent Garden store closed – so we set up a pop-up and used that space as a way to connect with our customers and community. The Youtube show format has been done in the US but we wanted a British take on it, and the show has really developed in the last few years – it’s entertaining but comedic and we have fun with our guests.”
- “Over the last 12 months we’ve really relied on tech to support our growth. Because of the unique nature of our business we have to track every single pair of shoes, know where it is, who it belongs to, and what we bought it for – so there’s been a lot of work linking the website and ERP system behind the scenes. WMSs don’t really fit our business model so we’ve got an advanced inventory management system to carry out a lot of processes for us.”
- “It’s fantastic to have made the Lightning 50 – I knew our numbers were strong but didn’t realise we’d rank so highly. The founders and myself are over the moon.”
Want to hear more of what Alicia had to say? Catch up with the full episode, and subscribe to upcoming ones, here.
