KICKSCREW Increases Revenue and Conversion with Marqo's AI-Native Product Discovery

Company Overview

KICKS CREW is a leading global sneaker marketplace connecting enthusiasts with authentic footwear, apparel, and accessories. Specializing in streetwear and limited-edition releases, the platform offers over 400,000 unique styles from top brands like Nike, Adidas, and Jordan, serving a worldwide community of collectors and fashion-forward consumers.

As KICKS CREW grew into a global destination for sneaker enthusiasts, the team saw an opportunity to move beyond keyword matching and toward an AI-native discovery experience that understands sneaker intent and stays current in real time.

With thousands of SKUs changing across regions, sizes, and release calendars, KICKS CREW focused on building search and browse that learns from shopper behavior, reflects inventory movement, and consistently surfaces the right product variant. The team saw an opportunity to elevate search into a more adaptive discovery experience that reduces friction, lifts conversion, and drives higher average order size.

Why KICKS CREW Evaluated Marqo vs. Algolia

KICKS CREW evaluated Marqo as a replacement for their existing search infrastructure powered by Algolia. The core challenge was that keyword matching couldn't handle the specificity that sneaker shoppers demanded — model numbers, colorway codes, and variant-level queries required a fundamentally different approach.

Marqo stood out for its catalog-trained relevance specifically designed for ecommerce, and its ability to learn from real shopper behavior — meaning KICKS CREW could deliver discovery that improved continuously as shoppers interacted with the platform.

Challenges

KICKS CREW's catalog complexity — spanning hundreds of brands, thousands of colorways, and constantly shifting availability — placed extreme demands on search accuracy. Keyword-based systems couldn't keep pace with how dedicated sneaker shoppers actually searched.

Product Code and Colorway Queries — Keyword matching failed to handle model numbers, product codes, and colorway-level sneaker queries accurately, forcing shoppers to browse instead of search.

Real-Time New Release Elevation — New releases and trending drops needed real-time elevation without manual merchandising effort for every launch.

Inventory-Aware Ranking — Out-of-stock products needed smart handling — indexable for SEO but deprioritized in live results based on regional availability.

Regional Personalization — Regional availability and size-level inventory signals were not factored into ranking, leading to frustrated shoppers finding unavailable products.

When a sneaker shopper types a 6-digit product code or searches "Travis Scott Jordan 1 Low OG" — they know exactly what they want. The search experience needs to be just as precise.

Solution

KICKS CREW deployed Marqo to power search and discovery across its global catalog. Marqo's pixel tracked shopper interactions on-site — including clicks, add-to-cart events, and purchases — to build catalog-specific relevance models tailored to sneaker search behavior.

Rankings improved continuously as shoppers engaged with the platform, surfacing new releases, handling model-number and colorway lookups, and managing out-of-stock products intelligently across regions and size availability without sacrificing long-tail SEO coverage.

Catalog-Trained Sneaker Relevance: Stronger understanding of brand and model searches, model numbers, product codes, and variant-level queries such as colorways and sizes.
Behavioral Signal Learning: Ongoing ranking improvements by leveraging first click, add-to-cart activity, and purchases to reflect real shopper demand and regional preferences over time.
Inventory-Aware Relevance: Out-of-stock products kept indexable for SEO while dynamically deprioritized in live results based on availability signals.
Merchandising and Discovery: Marqo-powered recommendations, trending queries, and popular products alongside merchandising controls for pinning products to key queries and collections.

Results

After implementing Marqo for 100% of site traffic, KICKS CREW saw immediate and significant impact. The shift to Marqo reshaped how KICKS CREW converts intent into revenue across its global sneaker catalog.

+16.0%

Increase in Revenue Added to Cart from Search

+17.7%

Uplift in Sitewide Conversion Rate

What This Means

The shift to Marqo reshaped how KICKS CREW converts intent into revenue. Accurate model-number lookups, boosted new releases, and smarter ranking deliver exactly what customers expect. Instead of losing shoppers to irrelevant results or buried inventory, KICKS CREW now drives bigger baskets and stronger loyalty from its core search experience.

New drops, model codes, and top sneakers surfaced instantly.
Out-of-stock handled smartly without hurting conversion.
Faster discovery turned searches into higher-value carts.

Results reflect production traffic after full deployment. Outcomes may vary depending on catalog size, traffic volume, and implementation configuration.