For over 40 years, SportShoes has been on a mission to help people lead healthier lives through running and fitness. What began as the UK’s first sports footwear-only store, has evolved into the nation’s number one online running and fitness retailer. Today, with over 17,000 products from 150+ global brands, SportShoes is more than a destination for high-performance gear, it’s the trusted partner for athletes and everyday movers alike.
But in a market where competition is fierce, costs are rising, and customers expect seamless, personalized experiences, staying ahead requires more than just a great product range. It demands data-driven strategies, deep customer insight, and tech partners who truly understand your goals.
We spoke with Dan Cartner, Head of Marketing at SportShoes, to explore how the brand is transforming its digital marketing approach, from identity resolution to AI , while staying rooted in the values that have fueled its growth.Â
Identity Is Everything: Know Your Customer, Convert More
For SportShoes, a major marketing hurdle was not knowing who was on their site, and not being able to tailor experiences accordingly. “We didn’t have an overlay partner that could identify new versus existing customers,” said Dan Cartner. “We were missing an opportunity.” That changed with Wunderkind.
Wunderkind Identity enabled SportShoes to recognize and differentiate between anonymous visitors and loyal returners, a powerful upgrade in a world where 95% of traffic often goes unidentified. By resolving identity across sessions and devices, SportShoes could now build rich, real-time customer profiles and engage with deeper personalization.
“What stood out for us immediately was the ability and the accuracy of being able to identify new and unknown users versus our existing users,” Cartner shared. That identity intelligence empowered the team to trigger hyper-targeted messaging across channels, converting more customers, reducing wasted spend, and future-proofing their strategy for a privacy-first digital world.
Scaling Email Opt-Ins to Fuel Future Revenue
In a competitive market where every contact counts, SportShoes turned email opt-ins into one of their most powerful growth levers. With Wunderkind’s identity-powered overlays and behavioral targeting, the brand saw explosive growth in their subscriber base.
“At the time when we began working together, we didn’t have an overlay partner that would incentivize a subscribe,” shared Dan Cartner. “This really turbocharged the uplift in subscribers and new people that you get to convert”.
By recognizing who was on the site, and whether they’d opted in before, Wunderkind delivered hyper-targeted prompts at just the right moment. The result? Six-figure growth in marketable email contacts and a dramatic increase in future customer value.
“We know that a user who is opted into email has a much higher future customer value,” Cartner explained. Wunderkind helped SportShoes build that high-LTV database efficiently, compliantly, and at scale.
Partnerships Should Be Built on Trust and Transparency
For SportShoes, selecting a technology partner isn’t just about features, it’s about shared values, seamless collaboration, and long-term alignment. “We don’t work with people that we don’t have synergies with,” said Dan Cartner. “For us, that was critical”.
Wunderkind isn’t just a platform; it’s a true extension of the marketing team. From day one, Cartner found the relationship rooted in mutual respect and transparency. Wunderkind’s flexible, partnership-first model is designed exactly for brands like SportShoes, those seeking to grow sustainably, with integrity. The team adapts to brand tone, creative direction, and internal pressure points, delivering value without disruption.
“It wasn’t us trying to get the cheapest product possible. It was trying to get the best product possible,” Cartner explained. “And I feel like we have that with Wunderkind”.
AI Will Turbocharge Marketing
AI isn’t about replacing marketers, it’s about empowering them. “It’s not about people losing jobs, it unleashes the team to be more creative and really think about consumers and strategy.
With Wunderkind’s AI-driven platform, SportShoes is tapping into the next evolution of retail marketing: intelligent automation, real-time personalization, and smarter audience targeting. By recognizing up to 6x more site visitors and analyzing behavioral signals, Wunderkind AI triggers perfectly timed, high-converting messages across email, SMS, and ads, no manual rule-building required. “It’s really going to turbocharge marketing,” Cartner added. And in a privacy-first landscape where third-party data is fading, AI-powered decisioning helps SportShoes build resilient, first-party relationships at scale.
The result? More efficiency, better performance, and a future-proofed marketing engine that adapts to consumer behavior in real time, giving the team time back to focus on what truly matters.
Conclusion
SportShoes isn’t just keeping up with the pace of modern retail, it’s setting the pace. By combining identity resolution, AI-powered automation, and a values-driven partnership with Wunderkind, the brand has transformed anonymous traffic into loyal customers, scaled high-value email opt-ins, and unlocked smarter, more efficient marketing. In an environment where customer expectations are rising and third-party data is disappearing, SportShoes proves that the right mix of technology, trust, and strategic focus can drive powerful, sustainable growth.