Under Armour’s VP of e-commerce talks consumer data, digital personalization and new products in his keynote address at IRCE.

Data is unlocking massive personalization potential for fitness brand Under Armour, George Hanson, vice president, North America e-commerce and brand house stores said Thursday during his keynote presentation at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.

Hanson detailed how data gathered from its Connected Fitness community informs its decision on personalizing its marketing to consumers and on potential new products.

“Through digital, through mobile, through innovative products, including wearables and embedables, Under Armour is changing the way athletes live,” Hanson said.

More than 200 million consumers comprise Under Armour’s Connected Fitness community, which includes buyers of its health-tracking wearable devices and its four fitness apps:  Under Armour’s fitness recording app Record, personal training app Endomondo, weight-loss coaching app MyFitnessPal and exercise tracking app MapMyFitness.

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In these apps, consumers have logged 9.6 billion foods and 2.6 billion workouts. And so, Under Armour knows how often a consumer is working out, where the workout took place—such as in a gym, in a home or outside—and how that consumer performed. The retailer can then use that data to decide how often it messages the consumer and about what products, Hanson said.

“With this data we can help them achieve their goals, get information to drive product innovation and yes, sell more shirts and shoes,” Hanson said.

Under Armour thinks about personalization in three buckets, he said. First, the brand uses shopper behavior to funnel its product recommendation and segment content pushes. The shopper may or may not realize that a retailer is personalizing content for her.

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The second bucket is where it becomes more obvious that the retailer is using something it knows about a shopper to make the experience more relevant. For example, Under Armour may ask a shopper to review a product she bought or send her an article about the Chicago Cubs because she previously bought a Kris Bryant jersey.

Thirdly, Under Armour is investing more time and resources in its digital concierge service, which is part of the on-boarding process in the Under Armour shopping app, which it launched in June 2016. After downloading the app, the retailer asks the shopper to select the sports and teams she is interested in and for whom she usually shops. While Hanson admits this isn’t new technology, it is new for Under Armour to specifically ask such questions in a shopping environment.

Hanson also talked about a product it released this week, called Icon, which allows consumers to create a customized sneaker online by uploading any photo, adjusting how it looks on the shoe and choosing the colors for the other shoe elements, such as the toe cap, tongue and Under Armour logo.

Under Armour’s business-to-businesses selling portal, which its sales representatives use with high schools and college teams, is the same technology that powers Icon. Icon is part of Under Armour’s latest initiative to inspire consumers and help them feel confident, Hanson said.

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Under Armour is No. 36 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 1000.

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