Company Overview
KICKSCREW 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.
Challenges
As KICKSCREW 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, KICKSCREW focused on building search and browse that learns from shopper behavior, reflects inventory movement, and consistently surfaces the right product variant.
The team prioritized deeper intent understanding for the queries sneaker fans rely on, including brand and model searches, model numbers, product codes, and colorway level intent. They also wanted discovery that can elevate new releases and trending drops, incorporate size and regional availability, and manage out of stock visibility without sacrificing long tail SEO coverage.
Beyond core search, KICKSCREW aimed to deliver a more personalized shopping experience through recommendations and merchandising controls that reflect how sneaker enthusiasts browse, compare, and buy. To support this next phase, the team evaluated AI native approaches and Marqo stood out for its ability to train relevance on KICKSCREW’s catalog and onsite behavior, delivering intent aware discovery built for sneaker commerce where launch cycles, availability, and demand signals shift week to week.
KICKSCREW saw an opportunity to elevate search into a more adaptive discovery experience that reduces friction, lifts conversion, and drives higher average order size.
