Nike India
Designing nike.in for India's biggest commerce transition (NDA)
E-Commerce · MWeb & Desktop · Full Redesign · Nike Podium Design System · B2C
CONTEXT
The largest platform handover in Indian fashion
In February 2026, Nike India handed over its entire digital commerce operation to Nykaa - India's leading fashion and beauty platform with 50M+ customers, 2B+ annual visits, and a 83% CAGR in fashion GMV. Nike.com/in became nike.in, fully powered by Nykaa's enterprise stack.
This was not just a domain change. Nykaa took end-to-end ownership of Nike's digital presence in India - consumer experience, commerce infrastructure, operations and fulfilment, data and analytics, marketing channels, and governance. One of the deepest brand-platform partnerships executed in the Indian market.
I was brought in as the Product Designer to take the responsibility - across mobile web and desktop - and own the process from first screen to production handoff.
MEDIA COVERAGE
PLATFORM CHANGES
What the Nykaa transition meant for users
The handover introduced significant changes to what Indian Nike shoppers had known. These weren't minor updates - they were structural shifts that directly shaped the design decisions:
The design challenge was to make the losses feel minimal and the gains feel front and centre - while keeping the experience unmistakably Nike.
THE CHALLENGE
One month became two weeks. And the direction changed midway.
The original engagement was planned as a one-month project: design the complete experience, build the MVP, align with development, and deliver a production-ready handoff.
Two things happened midway through that changed everything.
Nike's global team reviewed the first MVP and asked for a complete reset.
The initial direction combined elements from Nike's fashion experience with broader ecosystem patterns - a hybrid approach that made sense early on, but didn't hold up when reviewed against Nike's official ecosystem standards. The feedback from global stakeholders was direct: the experience needed to follow Nike's core design language and align with the Podium Design System.
Rebuilding the foundation wasn't optional. And the delivery window had just been cut from four weeks to two.
MY ROLE
End-to-end product design ownership
As the Product Designer on this engagement, I owned the experience from first exploration to production handoff:
Designing the complete user journey across MWeb and Desktop
Rebuilding the visual and interaction system on Nike's Podium Design System
Collaborating with developers throughout - not just at handoff
Preparing detailed, screen-by-screen handoff documentation
Resolving real-time design and implementation queries during the build
Running continuous QC while development was in progress
Managing escalations and iteration cycles under live deadline pressure
Patching the earlier hybrid MVP would have created debt at every step. Starting from Podium - while counterintuitive under time pressure - was the cleaner and ultimately faster path.
EXECUTION
How we shipped in two weeks
War-room collaboration model
We ran a daily live working session between design and development - not a standup, an actual working session. Developers raised implementation questions in real time. Decisions were made on the spot. No ticket-and-wait cycles, no async delays on blocking questions.
This single structural change removed the biggest hidden cost in fast-moving projects: the gap between a design question being raised and being answered.
Parallel design and development
We didn't wait for the full design to be complete before development started. Screens were distributed pod-by-pod - developers picked up completed flows while design continued on others. QC began while implementation was still live.
This overlap compressed the timeline without losing visibility into quality.
We ran a daily live working session between design and development - not a standup, an actual working session. Developers raised implementation questions in real time. Decisions were made on the spot. No ticket-and-wait cycles, no async delays on blocking questions.
This single structural change removed the biggest hidden cost in fast-moving projects: the gap between a design question being raised and being answered.
Continuous QC, not final-stage review
Quality assurance was built into the workflow from day one. Multiple rounds of design QC, iterative UI validation, and real-time escalation fixes ran throughout the build - not as a final gate. Issues surfaced during implementation were resolved immediately, keeping the delivery timeline intact.
SCALE
What we shipped
KEY TAKEAWAY
Speed under pressure is a team sport
The pivot happened halfway through. The timeline got cut in half. The foundation needed to be rebuilt from scratch on an unfamiliar design system, for a platform transition affecting millions of Indian users.
And we shipped on time
OUTCOMES
What was delivered
Rebuilt the complete nike.in experience using Nike's official Podium Design System - homepage, PLP, PDP,
account migration, and checkout
Delivered MWeb and Desktop experiences within a two-week window, following a mid-project direction
reset from Nike's global team
Designed the account migration flow to retain existing Nike India users through the Nykaa platform
transition with zero friction
Surfaced India-specific improvements - 2-day metro delivery, free shipping, free exchanges - as first-class
design elements, not afterthoughts
Maintained continuous development alignment through daily war-room syncs and real-time query
resolution across multiple platform teams
Shipped a production-ready, large-scale experience on time - with no downtime and no customer
disruption during the platform transition