Nike is ending its two-year deal with Amazon

“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”, the giant sportswear brand informed the markets.

Back in 2017 Nike set up a pilot program with the Amazon with an aim to have more control over third party sellers and indirectly contribute to the reduction of the sale of counterfeits. However, this didn’t happen quite in line with the brand’s expectations during the pilot, as third-party sellers were constantly appearing on the website selling their products, impacting the official Nike products, which received less reviews and therefore ended with worse positioning on the site.

Despite the decision, it is not foreseen that Nike products will disappear from Amazon as a network of third-party sellers offering Nike shoes are expected to continue  widely available.

This announcement follows last month’s news about former eBay CEO John Donahoe taking over as Nike’s Chief Executive in January and is being seen as an effort to  intensify Nike’s consumer direct digital transformation strategy.

Nike, which generated about 15% of its sales from their website and retailer partner sites last year, previously mentioned an aim to double this share by 2023.

Nike’s departure from Amazon is symptomatic of an issue faced by the ecommerce channel and resulting from several complaints over the amount of counterfeit merchandise found across its marketplace. A significant part of the goods sold on ecommerce platform are generated by independent merchants who pay Amazon a commission over sales.