Nike Will No Longer Sell Directly To Amazon -11/15/19

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing.  

Introduction

With your Retail E-Commerce Briefing for today, Friday, November 15th, I'm Vincent Phamvan.

Nike is breaking up with Amazon. The company announced they were ending their pilot program that began in 2017 to focus on selling more directly to their customers.  

First, here are some retail headlines.  

Disney+ Hits 10 Million Sign-ups

Disney+ said it has hit 10 million sign-ups since launching in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday despite thousands of glitches and complains on the first day. Although, reports of problems declined throughout the day as the company worked to resolve the issues. Disney attributed the issues to demand exceeding its expectations.

Adore Me Opens Sixth Store

Digitally-native lingerie startup, Adore Me, has opened its sixth store in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The 7,000 square foot store is Adore Me’s largest location to date. The new store is nearly double the size of the retailer’s other locations, enabling it to dedicate more room for the fit and consultation area. The fitting room area also includes a bar offering refreshments and snacks. The brand’s inclusive mission is an essential element in the space, which features mannequins of all sizes and colors. Adore Me is on a growing list of digitally-native disruptor brands that have expanded into brick-and-mortar locations. Brands like Burrow, Allbirds, and Casper have all invested in physical spaces as their companies have grown.

Google Expanding Local and Shopping Campaigns

Search giant, Google, is expanding its local and shopping campaigns for the holiday season. Saks Fifth Avenue and Sephora are among the retailers that have tested the capabilities. Local campaigns are designed to drive traffic to nearby locations while shopping campaigns have expanded buy online, pick up in-store capabilities for brick-and-mortar merchants. Saks this year is expanding its local campaigns to promote more store locations. The luxury retailer tested local campaigns for the holidays and saw a significant increase in store sales, along with an incremental offline return-on-ad-spend of 7 times. Sephora also saw a lift in store sales after testing the campaign.  

Nike Will No Longer Sell Directly To Amazon

Nike will stop selling its merchandise directly to Amazon. The abrupt halt will end a pilot program that Nike and Amazon launched in 2017. At the time, Nike joined Amazon’s brand registry program in hopes the move would give them more control over Nike goods sold on the e-commerce site, more data on their customers, and added power to remove fake Nike listings. But Nike reportedly struggled to control the Amazon marketplace. Third-party sellers whose listings were removed would pop up again under a different name and official Nike products had fewer reviews and received worse positioning on the site.

For Nike, the split also comes amid a massive overhaul of its retail strategy. It also follows the hiring of former eBay executive, John Donahoe, as its next CEO. The move signaled the company is more focused on its e-commerce sales and selling more directly to consumers. A Nike spokesperson said, “As part of Nike’s focus on elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships, we have made the decision to complete our current pilot with Amazon Retail. We will continue to invest in strong, distinctive partnerships for Nike with other retailers and platforms to seamlessly serve our consumers globally.”.

Closing

Thanks for listening to this latest episode of the Retail E-Commerce Briefing. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review. Until next time.