On Running Opens First São Paulo Stores: CX and Service Design Stakes

What happened

Swiss performance sportswear brand On has confirmed opening dates for its first two standalone retail stores in São Paulo, Brazil, marking the label's inaugural brick-and-mortar presence in Latin America's largest city. The announcement, made via On's official pressroom, signals a deliberate move to deepen the brand's physical retail footprint in a high-growth market where it has previously operated primarily through wholesale partners and its direct-to-consumer digital channel.

The two São Paulo locations represent On's bet that premium sports retail in Brazil demands a curated, brand-controlled environment — one where product storytelling, fit expertise and community experience can be delivered on the brand's own terms rather than through a third-party retail floor.

Why it matters

For customer-experience and service-design practitioners, On's São Paulo entry is a textbook case of the channel sequencing decision that every premium brand eventually faces: at what point does digital-first growth require physical anchoring to sustain brand equity and reduce churn? On has built a fiercely loyal customer base through performance credibility and a distinctive aesthetic, but loyalty at scale is harder to maintain without touchpoints that engage the senses — gait analysis, material feel, community run clubs — that no e-commerce interface can replicate.

From a behavioural economics perspective, the move also speaks to the endowment effect and the role of physical trial in converting considered purchasers. Footwear at On's price point is a high-involvement category; customers who try a shoe in a well-designed environment are measurably more likely to purchase and less likely to return. Owning that moment, rather than ceding it to a multi-brand retailer, gives On control over the entire decision journey.

The Renascence take

Most coverage of On's São Paulo launch will focus on brand expansion and revenue opportunity. What observers are more likely to miss is the service design challenge that comes with being your own retailer for the first time in a new cultural context — and how much that differs from simply opening a shop.

Entering a market like São Paulo with owned stores is not primarily a real-estate decision — it is a service promise. On must now hire, train and retain frontline staff who can embody a brand built on Swiss precision and running-community warmth, in a city with its own distinct retail culture and customer expectations. The brands that stumble at this stage are invariably those that treat store design as the product and staff experience as an afterthought. On's CX leadership should be asking one question above all others right now: what does a great day feel like for a customer who walks into either of these stores knowing nothing about the brand — and how do we engineer that consistently, not just at launch?