ABOUT THE BRAND

Building a brand for the fast-moving sneaker culture

The sneaker game waits for no one. Taylor Swift wears a pair of New Balances, Kendrick Lamar sports Nikes at the Super Bowl Half Time Show, and demand skyrockets overnight. Speed is everything for a marketplace like Stadium Goods, where every drop, trend, and cultural shift contributes to hype marketing and drives shoppers in droves.

That’s why a mobile app is critical in Stadium Goods’ ecommerce strategy. The best way for their most loyal customers to grab the next big thing is through their mobile app—before the moment passes.

Before becoming the Head of Ecommerce for DTC channels, Kyle Patel worked in mobile apps, product development, and ecommerce. In his first role at Stadium Goods, he launched a mobile app for their suppliers. So when it came time to transition to Shopify, he knew a strong mobile strategy was key—and that Tapcart was the right partner to make it happen.

With Tapcart, Stadium Goods reacts to viral moments, launches faster, and turns casual shoppers into loyal app customers who buy more often. Their mobile strategy doesn’t just keep up—it drives revenue.

THE CHALLENGE

After making the switch to Shopify, it was time to rethink their mobile strategy

For Stadium Goods (and any ecommerce brand), traffic is everything. But with endless shopping options, shifting trends, and constant competition for customer attention, cutting through the noise is harder than ever.

That’s why Stadium Goods is always looking for new ways to capture its audience’s attention, whether it leads to an immediate purchase or deeper engagement.

As a supply-driven marketplace, Stadium Goods thrives on cultural moments and shifting trends. Take Taylor Swift’s New Balance moment—within hours, demand surged, and traffic to their site spiked. Moments like these define success for Stadium Goods, connecting the right customers with the products they want, exactly when they want them.

“If you can't capitalize on [moments] when they happen, you miss out. And if you constantly miss out, it’s going to be a long-term problem,” said Kyle.

But capitalizing on traffic spikes is only part of the equation. The real challenge? Turning one-time visitors into long-term customers.

“A website can get to a first purchase—even a good mobile website. But is it going to get you your second purchase? All the data I’ve seen in my career has shown it’s not as likely as with a mobile app.”
‍Kyle Patel, Head of Ecommerce at Stadium Goods 

To keep up the momentum and maximize every opportunity, the Stadium Goods team needed a way to move fast, engage their audience, and create a seamless path to repeat purchases. They already had a mobile app, but when they moved to Shopify for more flexibility and control over their ecommerce site, they had a decision to make: rebuild in-house or find the right partner.

“We were looking for a more flexible ecommerce platform that we could customize and have more control over. And we went with best in class with Shopify,” said Kyle. “Once we realized Shopify was the right partner, the next domino was the mobile app.”

For Stadium Goods, Tapcart was the clear choice—giving them the speed, efficiency, and seamless Shopify integration they needed to keep pace with demand and turn web shoppers into loyal app customers.

THE SOLUTION

Leveraging Tapcart to capture demand spikes and build loyal customers

Kyle and the Stadium Goods team already knew the value of a mobile app. He put it succinctly: “If somebody’s going to download your app, they probably don’t kinda like you—they really like you.”

Instead, they had to decide whether to continue maintaining their custom-built app in-house or find a solution that worked seamlessly with Shopify.

They built their previous app on React Native and maintained it internally, which made sense at the time. But they transitioned to Shopify for greater flexibility and control over their ecommerce store, and they had to decide if an in-house app was still the best approach—or if a Shopify-integrated mobile solution like Tapcart would better serve their business.

Why Stadium Goods chose Tapcart for mobile growth?

Shopify gave Stadium Goods full control over their ecommerce experience—then they needed an app solution that did the same. 

Instead of rebuilding their app from the ground up, which would have required developers, designers, QA teams, and a constant investment of time and resources, they wanted a solution that let them move faster and scale efficiently.

“When it came down to Tapcart versus other vendors, I think it was the same argument for Shopify. We wanted a trusted best-in-class partner that we could count on.”
‍Kyle Patel, Head of Ecommerce at Stadium Goods 

Building a fully customizable app with App Studio

Tapcart’s App Studio offers a fully customizable app solution that lets Stadium Goods design, test, and launch updates in real time—without relying on a full app team.

Staying agile helps Stadium Goods capitalize on viral moments—allowing them to deliver the best experiences to their most loyal customers. Here’s how App Studio helped them achieve that:

• Drag-and-drop builder: Create and tweak the app like Legos—no coding required
• Quick testing and iteration: Deploy updates instantly, test layouts, and refine the experience
• Full customization: Adjust UI, layouts, and elements to fit Stadium Goods’ brand
• Live mobile previews: No clunky emulators—test and experience updates as customers would
• Fast execution: Roll out promotions, product updates, and campaigns with zero development bottlenecks

They set up the UI in just a week, thanks to six months of strategic planning during the Shopify migration. With Tapcart, they can launch updates, test new features, and optimize their mobile shopping experience faster than ever—without technical roadblocks slowing them down.

“Tapcart solves the problem of delivering mobile app experiences very quickly to your customer. My experience in the past was you had to have a developer and a product team, QA, a designer, and all this infrastructure, manpower and technology to deliver a mobile app experience. Tapcart allowed us to deliver a complete mobile app experience to our customers.”
‍Kyle Patel, Head of Ecommerce at Stadium Goods 

Stadium Goods’ ability to update their app in real time means they can:

• React to cultural moments faster: If a celebrity wears a sneaker, they can feature it front and center the next day.
• Optimize the shopping experience in real time: Instantly test layouts, promotions, and collections to see what drives conversions.
• Keep their audience engaged: Rolling out fresh content, promotions, and drops without waiting for long dev cycles.

This means when demand spikes, Stadium Goods can respond instantly—from featuring a trending sneaker to fine-tuning the app experience.

THE RESULTS

Turning mobile shoppers into Stadium Goods’ most valuable customers

With Tapcart powering their mobile app, Stadium Goods has built a stronger, more engaged customer base that shops more often, spends more, and keeps coming back.

Turning shoppers into long-term customers

Some brands hesitate to launch a mobile app, worried it might cannibalize web sales rather than drive new revenue. But for Stadium Goods, the app isn’t just about where customers shop—it’s about how often and how much they spend.

Stadium Goods’ app shoppers return twice as often as those who buy on the website.  They engage more frequently, complete more purchases, and develop stronger brand loyalty. Mobile customers aren’t just making a single purchase—they’re actively engaging with the brand through push notifications, exclusive offers, or seamless browsing. 

“If you're already on mobile, I want you in my app,” said Kyle. “Because if I get you to purchase on my app, you’re twice as likely to come back and buy again.”

Unlike the web, the app allows Stadium Goods to:

• Send push notifications that land directly in front of customers.
• Offer exclusive in-app deals that incentivize downloads and repeat purchases.
• Create a frictionless shopping experience optimized for conversions.

Stadium Goods is increasing customer lifetime value and long-term profitability by actively moving web shoppers to the app.

“Customers are much more likely to have a higher lifetime value—to come back and make more purchases and engage with your brand if they have your app on their phone.”
‍Kyle Patel, Head of Ecommerce at Stadium Goods 

The app also acts as a direct line to their most engaged customers. Because app users are more active, their shopping behavior provides real-time insights into customer sentiment—helping Stadium Goods stay ahead of trends and optimize their marketing efforts.

A profitable and high-performing sales channel

The mobile app is one of Stadium Goods’ most valuable revenue drivers, accounting for 20% of total revenue—and climbing to 30% during major sales events.

App customers also spend more per order, with a 25% higher average order value (AOV) than web shoppers. Features like curated collections, frictionless checkout, and mobile-first merchandising encourage customers to explore and add more to their carts.

Speed that keeps up with hype

Speed is everything for a brand that thrives on cultural moments and shifting trends. With Tapcart, Stadium Goods can get products live in hours instead of days or weeks, allowing them to feature trending products while demand is at its peak.

“We can lean in on hype moments that happen. Anyone on our mobile app can have the most up-to-date products and information very quickly. We've gone from weeks to delivering experiences to hours and days. That's been the biggest benefit for us.”
‍Kyle Patel, Head of Ecommerce at Stadium Goods 

This agility also extends to testing, promotions, and customer engagement. The ability to quickly iterate, adjust, and optimize means Stadium Goods can experiment with strategies that keep their customers engaged and coming back.

‍

THE STRATEGY

Engaging customers beyond the first purchase with push notifications and app-only promos

The Stadium Goods team doesn’t see their mobile app as just another sales channel—they see it as a place to connect and engage with their customers. They’ve turned their app into a go-to destination. Shoppers return more often, spend more per order, and stay connected to the brand in ways that wouldn’t be possible on the web alone.

Creating demand and repeat engagement with app-only campaigns

To encourage customers to download the app, Stadium Goods offers frequent app-only promotions. With App Studio, these promotions are seamless to execute. The team can set up campaigns in advance, schedule and launch them without scrambling at the last minute.

“The editor is very nice because we can build out specific campaigns for promos or otherwise well ahead of time and then just have them ready,” said Kyle. “It's made us a lot more efficient because we don't have to scramble on the mobile app.”

They’ve used this strategy for ongoing app-only campaigns, including:

• A Jordan promo over the weekend was set up in advance and launched with a single click.
• App-exclusive daily deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday run automatically daily.
• Consistent monthly app-only offers that keep users engaged long-term.

With app promotions driving downloads and repeat engagement, the app becomes a habit for shoppers that keeps them coming back.

BFCM's success created a blueprint for future sales

Black Friday and Cyber Monday were Stadium Goods’ first major app-driven sales events—and they proved just how powerful an app-first strategy could be.

Rather than manually updating the app every day, the team pre-built and scheduled all promotions in advance, eliminating the stress of last-minute execution.

With Tapcart, they could:

• Schedule daily deals to launch automatically
• Ensure a smooth, consistent shopping experience
• Scale their strategy for future app-exclusive promos

The success of BFCM led to ongoing monthly app promos, including:

• December daily deals
• January app-exclusive promotions
• February’s Jordan sale

By making seamless execution a priority, Stadium Goods has turned its mobile app into a powerful, high-performing sales channel.

Sending 8 million push notifications to drive real-time engagement

Once a customer downloads the app, push notifications become a direct line of engagement that Stadium Goods has fully embraced. Since switching to Tapcart, they’ve sent over 8 million push notifications, making it one of their highest-performing marketing channels.

Unlike emails or website banners, push notifications reach customers instantly and drive immediate action. They’re also highly cost-effective, reducing the brand’s reliance on paid ads while delivering strong engagement.

The key to success? Relevance. Stadium Goods focuses on sending notifications that feel timely, valuable, and interesting—whether it’s announcing a new release, reminding customers about an exclusive deal, or responding to trending demand.

“We use push to be in the conversation in the moment,” said Kyle.

By combining app-exclusive deals, seamless promotions, and direct engagement through push notifications, Stadium Goods has built a sustainable, mobile-first marketing strategy that keeps customers coming back.

Turn mobile into a high-performing sales and retention channel with Tapcart

When Stadium Goods moved to Shopify, finding the right mobile solution was the next logical step. They needed a platform that could match the efficiency and flexibility of their ecommerce operations while improving their Marketing Efficiency Rate (MER). Tapcart gave them a seamless way to drive app adoption, optimize promotions, and boost retention without increasing acquisition costs.

Want to create mobile moments like Stadium Goods? Explore Tapcart.