Why it will get harder to find Nike products in retailers and stores

At least until 2017, Nike's sales channels were multiple, often almost contradictory. While for the most exclusive releases the brand turned to the SNKRS app and to selected and high fashion retailers, the other Nike products could be found nearly everywhere, in big department stores, in sporting goods stores, even in small stores in not so big cities. This layered and branched strategy meant that just 10 years ago 84% of Nike's sales came from wholesale. On the other hand, sales relating to the direct channels of the brand, such as the website or flagship stores, amounted to only 16%. However, this dynamic is rapidly changing, so much so that in the fiscal year of 2021, which ended on May 31, direct sales accounted for 39% of all Nike sales, while those from external retailers accounted for 61%.

The balance hasn't been achieved yet, but here are the first results of the strategy introduced by Nike in 2017, called consumer direct offence, which aimed to attract the public to the direct sales channels of the brand, both digital, the website and the SNKRS app, both physical, like the brand's stores, redesigned to be more immersive and appealing for consumers. In this way, Nike has cut out unnecessary intermediaries - and with them also their revenues - managing to get greater control over the brand and having a more direct relationship with its audience. At the same time, Nike has greatly reduced the number of retailers it sells its products to, the most prominent of which is Amazon, avoiding stores and retailers that don't have a well-defined identity or that reach an audience that Nike can reach on its own too. 

The choice of retailer partners has therefore become more targeted and reasoned, and already in 2017 Nike had announced that it would prioritize a group of retailers, which in the United States are Dick's Sporting Goods, Foot Locker and JD Sports, as well as other smaller but well-rooted shops in the territory. In this sense, Nike has greatly enhanced the role of local skate shops, which have become the starting point for the relaunch of the Dunks, often released in preview or exclusively in these stores.

Nike didn't want to give up external partners to increase its sales but applied a new choice criterion, that would keep the identity and above all the intentions of the brand intact. According to Nike, the strategy will continue for the next few years and by 2025 direct sales will amount to 60% of the total.