NIKE EXEC: 'We've elevated the Amazon experience'
Nike resisted selling on Amazon for years.
Nike keeps its image - both online and off - very tightly controlled, and it reportedly decided to make the change in order to get better control over how the brand appears on Amazon, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Nike products sold on Amazon were previously listed by third-party sellers, which had led to chaos on the ecommerce site.
Nike products listed on Amazon tended to be a mishmash of different price points and product classes, with the same sneakers costing different amounts for no reason other than the seller deciding to list them for that amount. This understandably causes confusion to the customer, even if they're just browsing.
Nike wanted Amazon to crack down on these third-party sellers who list products bought elsewhere, possibly purchased with bots and resold at multiples higher than retail.
"We've elevated the Amazon experience," Heidi O'Neill, Nike's president of direct-to-consumer business, said during a panel at Recode's Code Commerce on Wednesday. "That is both through the lens of the reseller as well as how they experience the Nike brand."
O'Neil told the conference that their deal has been successful at reducing the number of resellers on Amazon, though Nike has not yet begun selling directly on the ecommerce site.