In a bid to appear more appealing to larger retailers and boost online sales in the region, sportswear brand NIKE will reportedly stop supplying smaller sports retailers in Singapore from January, 2017.
With retailers relying on top-selling brands like NIKE to attract customers, smaller retail stores located in Singapore will get a huge blow. Gurbachan Singh, Manager of SPORTS RETAILER SALAM & Sons reportedly said, “This move would force many of us, some of whom had been operating since the 1970s and 1980s, out of business soon. We did business with NIKE for more than 20 years. We followed their rules, never defaulted on payments nor brought in fake or parallel imports. Many of us don’t understand why they are doing this to us.”
According to Mark Penu, Managing Director of Premier Sports International, which markets and distributes sports merchandise, NIKE has made the move to butter up the major sports retailers and to get close with big chains like Weston and Sports Link.
Also Read – Nike faces business challenges
Last year, NIKE announced to investors its plans to grow online sales 600 per cent by fiscal 2020 to US $ 7 billion. Currently, e-commerce represents only 2 per cent of its total sales of US $ 30.6 billion, and the company projects that portion to grow to around 14 per cent in the next five years.
