Impending Amazon – Nike deal is bad news for retailers

The possible Amazon – Nike collaboration, which would lead to Nike selling its product range on Amazon itself, has caused turmoil among other retailers.

More control

An Goldman Sachs analyst revealed the possible deal, which would create several advantages according to the business bank. Nike would get more control over how its products are presented and sold and a large part of its customer base is already active on Amazon too. Right now, Nike’s products are only available on Amazon through third parties.

The impending deal would be bad news for other retailers, which also showed on the stock market. Shoe chain Foot Locker and sports chain Dicks Sporting Goods immediately suffered sizeable share drops, while Nike’s share went up.

Prime Wardrobe

There was a similar stock market reaction when Amazon acquired Whole Foods and several supermarket chains had to deal with share price drops.

Amazon announced Prime Wardrobe earlier this week, a service for Amazon Prime subscribers to order and try out clothes at home. Only once they have decided which items to keep, they have to pay and can ship back the remainder for free. This puts it in the same playing field as online services like Suitcase.