Nike Ends Direct Sales Of Goods to Amazon -- WSJ
November 13 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Khadeeja Safdar
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (November 13, 2019).
Nike Inc. said it would stop selling its clothes and sneakers
directly to Amazon.com Inc., an about-face for the sportswear
brand.
The sneaker giant agreed in 2017 to sell products to Amazon in
exchange for stricter policing of counterfeits and restrictions on
unsanctioned sales. It was part of Amazon's effort to court big
fashion brands to sell their products through its website.
In a statement Tuesday, Nike said it has decided to focus on its
direct business, though it will continue to seek partnerships with
other retailers and platforms. Nike's move was earlier reported by
Bloomberg News.
For years, Nike had refused to sell directly to Amazon, fearing
it would undermine its brand. Nike executives were unhappy with how
unauthorized sellers continued to be widely available on Amazon,
according to people familiar with the matter.
An Amazon representative had no immediate comment Tuesday.
Nike has focused on bulking up sales via its own stores, its
apps and its own website. It has pared back the number of retailers
it uses and now gets more than 30% of its annual sales from its
direct-to-consumer business.
At the same time, Amazon's website has come under greater
scrutiny as the volume of products sold by third-party sellers has
exploded. They accounted for 60% of physical merchandise sales on
the site in 2018, up from 30% a decade ago. Amazon has made the
process to list products so simple that counterfeiters have been
exploiting the marketplace, The Wall Street Journal has
reported.
Amazon has said it prohibits the sale of counterfeits. Earlier
this year, Amazon started letting brand owners delete listings on
its site for products they deem fake. At the time, Amazon said its
engineers were working to better train the algorithms that
automatically scan, block and scrub the site of suspect
listings.
--Dana Mattioli contributed to this article.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 13, 2019 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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