
Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore - omarhaneef
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/13/nike-wont-sell-directly-to-amazon-anymore.html
======
davidhyde
People don't mind buying from a vendor's site directly but the vendor should
do their best to reduce the admin / pain of doing so.

Some tips I wish vendors would follow:

1\. Don't capture more information than is absolutely necessary for the
transaction.

2\. Don't force the user to sign up or join anything if they just want to buy
something.

3\. Don't automatically add the user to your newsletter and send their details
to your ad network. Be very explicit that you won't do this.

4\. Tell the user up front how much postage will most likely cost and expected
delivery time before you capture all their details. You can guess their
general location from their IP address of have them select a city.

5\. Have multiple payment options (like paypal for example), not just credit
card.

6\. Up front, tell them what you need from them before they can complete the
transaction. Nobody likes working through an endless data collection wizard
only to stop half way though because you don't want to give up that data or
get bored filling things in.

It's really not that complicated.

~~~
rimunroe
I used Apple Pay on iOS to buy something direct from a vendor recently and was
_shocked_ at how smooth the purchase experience was.

1\. Click "Buy with Apple Pay" button.

2\. Double click power button on the side of my phone to confirm.

I wish more sites would support it.

~~~
slenk
Then they should also support Android. Apple isn't the majority anymore.

Even if Apple Pay comes to others I won't use it. I absolutely don't think
Apple has better privacy than anyone else.

~~~
scarface74
There is a W3C standard for web payments. If the website supports the
standard, it supports Android.

~~~
slenk
Did not know that. Thank you!

~~~
scarface74
Slight correction. It’s a candidate recommendation - not quite a standard.

[https://www.w3.org/TR/payment-request/](https://www.w3.org/TR/payment-
request/)

And Apple implements it.

[https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_w...](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_web)

 _Safari supports two JavaScript APIs that let you accept Apple Pay payments
from customers on your website: Apple Pay JS, and the W3C Payment Request API.
The Apple Pay JS API is analogous to the PassKit (Apple Pay and Wallet)
framework, used for Apple Pay in apps. The Payment Request API is a W3C
candidate API._

It seems to be supported across all browsers.

[https://stripe.com/docs/stripe-js/reference](https://stripe.com/docs/stripe-
js/reference)

------
rubbingalcohol
Amazon sells so many counterfeit Nike products that I've been using Nike and
Adidas' online stores for quite awhile.

Amazon is so bad when it comes to counterfeits that there are only two
conditions that will lead me to purchase an item there anymore:

\- Either the item is listed as being sold by its original manufacturer and
fulfilled by Amazon

\- Or I just need something and don't care if it's cheap Chinese crap

I'm sure with Nike officially leaving Amazon this will only get worse. But
practically any other big brand you're still looking at paying full price for
knock-off merchandise. I can't believe Amazon gets away with having their
"head in the sand" to this degree.

~~~
ncallaway
Oh, man. I've ordered a couple of pairs of Adidas shoes from Amazon that wore
out exceptionally quickly. I had been assuming that Adidas had been suffering
from a drop in quality lately.

Now that you mention it, though, I'll bet I wasn't getting authentic stuff.
I'm going to purchase a pair from Adidas directly and see if the quality is
better.

If it is better quality, I'll be kicking myself. I _know_ Amazon has these
kinds of problems, but I just didn't connect it to those shoes before.

~~~
op00to
Don’t forget - there are often many different levels of quality within the
same brand name. Your Target Nike athletic shoes will not be the same as the
ones you buy at a Nike flagship store. Lower quality, poorer materials, etc.

------
dazc
Manufacturers are moving towards selling direct to the consumer and, although
this is an obvious progression, most seem to be quite inept at it? (@davidhyde
has listed a lot of valid points).

That said, amazon's fashion/footwear is a bit of a hit and miss experience
here in the UK. Multiple listings for the same product, poor quality own brand
merchandise, branded products with very limited colour/size combinations, and
so on.

I expected amazon would have smashed this by now but it seems to get worse and
worse?

~~~
bduerst
I'm not so sure about that. If anything, Shopify's more recent success is due
to an expansion of consumers buying online from sites that are not walled
gardens like Amazon.

~~~
dazc
I agree, Shopify has had a positive impact with small-medium sized merchants.
Big brands with custom solutions however are not very impressive.

------
wufufufu
So in this world where every retailer does this I get to install N apps, re-
enter my payment/shipping information N times, deal with N different return
processes, update my credit card info N times when it changes, and have N
questionably written systems know all my PII?

I honestly much prefer shopping on the Nike app over Amazon, but I'm going to
go to Amazon to buy whatever I found on that app.

~~~
mostlyjason
If PayPal wasn’t such a crap company they’d be the perfect solution for this
problem. Just enter your payment and shipping info once and get one click
checkout on any site.

~~~
buffin
I'm curious. What do you not like about PayPal? It seems to be working well
for me.

------
kerng
A couple of years ago Birkenstock did the same - for them it was about quality
control and ripoffs.

It's interesting because any Birkenstock Amazon sells is basically an assumed
fake one.

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alanh
Whether or not this is smart, I’m just here to highlight the obvious BS of
this statement: Nike claims to be removing its product from amazon so as to
"elevate consumer experiences."

ugh.

Fluffy Subjective Possibly wrong

I don’t need a massive hero image of a sports star to order gym shorts or a
gym bag. I’m just searching amazon for what I need. My "experience" is worse
if I never even see Nike's products, not better.

~~~
danhood
“Elevate consumer experiences”, huh? I also call total BS.

I’m not a sneaker guy, but recently tried to buy a launch pair of sneakers as
a gift - only available by Nike’s store. It was a _terrible_ experience with
their storefront - crashing, erroring out, empty HTTP responses, app errors,
redirect loops, self-emptying cart, etc. Finally got to chat with someone at
Nike support after trying for an hour - sold out. They seemed completely
indifferent to their storefront being a technical dumpster fire. Essentially,
“better luck next time”. No thanks, I’m done - there will not be a next time.

~~~
hellomyguys
Sneaker drops are notoriously bad experiences due to how many people and bots
are hitting the website/app.

I’m not sure your single experience of the worst case shopping scenario for
Nike is representative of the average costumer experience.

Besides that, as someone who has bought Nike/Adidas gear on Amazon, it can be
a very bad experience. Description information is often lacking, especially if
you are trying to see if this is the most recent model or care about sizing
information, let alone if it’s going to be a legitimate product. And if it
isn’t, good luck being able to immediately tell it’s fake.

I can definitely see why Nike thinks this is a costumer experience improvement
(as well as all the business benefits too, of course).

~~~
grogenaut
I have very little sympathy for nike on their forced scarcity bent lately,
they're only doing it to themslves on this bad user experience.

------
cobbzilla
Why would anyone buy shoes on Amazon? They own Zappos, whose focus is
specifically footwear, and have a pretty good shopping experience. Never had a
problem with counterfeits on Zappos.

~~~
CharlesColeman
> Why would anyone buy shoes on Amazon? They own Zappos, whose focus is
> specifically footwear, and have a pretty good shopping experience. Never had
> a problem with counterfeits on Zappos.

I think a lot of people kinda lazily settled into using Amazon.com for
all/most of their online shopping years ago when it was clearly better its
problems weren't as pronounced. Those people aren't even bothering to find or
look at other sites, and just buy whatever's on Amazon.com. It takes some
extremely bad experience or serendipitous exposure to change that habit.

I was in that boat until I had serious problems with the quality of Amazon
Logistics delivery and went to a Best Buy and discovered that (for many
products I was buying) Amazon doesn't have _any_ price advantage over physical
retail anymore (and often its prices are far, far _worse_ ).

~~~
jschwartzi
Me too. I actually have been ordering online from Best Buy and either getting
it same-day or getting it in 1-2 days when it ships from a warehouse. There's
no reason to buy from Amazon anymore.

------
devicetray0
> The news also follows the recently announced hiring of John Donahoe, former
> eBay CEO, as the sportswear retailer’s next CEO.

Hmm, I see..

~~~
jinushaun
The cynic in me sees this less as a change motivated by improving the customer
experience, and more about Nike promoting their own walled garden.

To be fair, Amazon is the LAST place I would buy Nikes. Counterfeit risk is
too high. Comingling inventory is the worst.

~~~
awinder
What in the world is a fashion-wear walled garden? I'm pretty sure you can
wear nike shirts with Adidas tops, socks are like the USB-C of feet, etc.

~~~
Liquix
Let's say a customer wants Nike shoes, has Amazon Prime, and does most of
their shopping through Amazon. Before:

1.) Search Amazon for Nike shoes

2.) Buy shoes

3.) Close Amazon

4.) Receive (possibly counterfeit) shoes. If low quality or fake, perhaps
think less of Nike.

After:

1.) Search Amazon for Nike shoes

2.) Observe no Nike shoes in results

3.) Google 'buy nike shoes'

4.) Visit nike.com

5.) Nike promotes sweatpants/sweatshirts/is running a sale/etc on landing page

6.) Possible conversion (customer is drawn in by promotions; ends up buying
more than just the shoes)

7.) Receive authentic Nike merchandise, think highly of brand

It's a couple extra steps and this is oversimplified for a generic case.
There's also places it could go wrong, such as if Nike chooses to collect and
sell customer/transaction data. But if executed correctly, the switch benefits
both Nike and the consumer while only hurting Amazon. Seems like a win-win-
win.

~~~
w457uiw4gftyi
Except step 4 in your second scenario could also be "Visit
dickssportinggoods.com" or "Visit finishline.com" or any number of reputable
retailers that will sell genuine Nike products. Nike isn't saying they will be
the exclusive seller of their products.

Nike is just no longer doing business with one (large) retailer who is
apparently 'unable' to separate counterfeit products from genuine ones.

------
calewis
I listened to a great pod cast about Amazon recently. On it they talk to the
CEO of Birkenstock and he discusses about how they no longer sell on amazon
and why. Its a great listen: [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/land-of-
the-giants/id1...](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/land-of-the-
giants/id1465767420)

------
pdq
Pick your favorite designer perfume/cologne and look at the reviews on Amazon.
(For example, Creed Aventus [1]). A large percentage will say "fake".

I can't believe any trademarked brand would sell on Amazon, given they do not
care to control their supply chain. It's a lose-lose: unhappy customers
getting ripped off, and name brands getting disappointed customers of their
faked products.

1\. [https://www.amazon.com/Creed-Aventus-Parfum-Spray-
Ounce/dp/B...](https://www.amazon.com/Creed-Aventus-Parfum-Spray-
Ounce/dp/B06ZZGNMYD)

~~~
vkou
The problem is that even if you don't sell on Amazon, Amazon is more then
happy to let counter-fitters crap on your brand.

~~~
CaptainZapp
I believe you're right. But that makes me really wonder why any pimply faced
teenager in Kentucky, who downloads a dozen songs illegally gets the full
hammer of the law crushed on him, but Amazon can get away as a mass
distributor of fake goods.

I wonder if they're more careful in Italy or France, since those countries
take a very dim view on fakes, entities that sell them and even buyers.

Buying knock-offs in Italy can cost you a fine of EUR 7'000[1]

[1] [https://www.godsavethepoints.com/italy-knock-off-goods-
fine-...](https://www.godsavethepoints.com/italy-knock-off-goods-fine-
beaches/)

------
whamlastxmas
Glad to see the counterfeit situation finally having repercussions.

------
philip1209
Will they still sell to Zappos?

------
dasKrokodil
First Birkenstock, then Nike. I guess shoemakers don't like Amazon...

~~~
zwaps
Any brand who cares should dislike Amazon. As a consumer, at least half of
anything I order on Amazon is fake, and Amazon gives no indication of caring
at all.

Hence, if I order a pair of Nike shoes on Amazon, there is a good chance I
receive an absolutely inferior product and blame it on the brand. Once that
damage is done, I - and a perhaps a portion of my friends - will never buy the
brand again. Ever.

~~~
consumer451
It’s seems to me that this could be much worse than shoes.

For example, how am I supposed to know if the Sandisk flash drive I bought was
directly from the manufacturer, and not a 3rd party who is part of an
industrial espionage effort? How about a Yubikey?

This is likely not just a problem with Amazon, but it sure would be nice if
they gave me an option to buy things directly from the oem, guaranteed.

~~~
chihuahua
For Samsung MicroSD cards, Samsung has a tool you can download that
authenticates the card. I don't know the specifics of what the tool does, but
presumably with proper use of cryptography techniques, it could be made nearly
impossible to circumvent.

A caveat - I used the tool and it said the card was genuine. Afterwards I put
it back in my dashcam, and the dashcam said the card was bad. I just had to
reformat it in the dashcam and then it was fine.

