- Nike is getting more selective of which retail partners it favors.
- The company currently has about 30,000 retail partners, but plans to focus its attention on its relationship with about 40 of those partners.
- It’s part of Nike’s plan to better control how it sells its product.
Nike is getting picky.
CEO Mark Parker said at the annual Investor’s Day summit that the company will be favoring a small number of retailers. The company currently has 30,000 retail partners, but plans to favor a select few ‘differentiated retailers’ like Nordstrom and Foot Locker — about 40 in all.
These differentiated retailers will get special attention from the company, and are willing to have a special branded space for Nike product as well as dedicated salespeople for Nike product.
Online, Amazon is also one of the favored retailers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Nike is currently in a pilot to sell directly on Amazon.com.
Nike’s plan is to make this shift over the next five years. The rest of Nike’s retailers will not be shed — at least not immediately. Still, Nike clearly expects some of its retailers to drop out, or go out of business. President of Nike Brand Trevor Edwards told investors “undifferentiated, mediocre retail won’t survive.”
Nike is increasingly focused on its own direct-to-consumer push as it relies less on wholesale. It has even stopped reporting its future sales based on orders from retailers as it touts its own sales channel.
The company is also drastically ramping up its online efforts and hopes to get 30% of its revenue from e-commerce by 2022 — up from 15% today.
by Dennis Green
