sportFACHHANDEL 08_2018 Leseprobe

16 | COVER STORY | Brands vs. Retail 8.2018
ALIENATION BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND TRADE
Scenes from
a Marriage
The sector is rapidly changing. The concentration process in both, the manufacturing and the retail sector,
seems to be inexorable. Is this the end of the partnership between retailers and producers?
Text: Marcel Rotzoll
The brands and the specialist sports retail –
normally a love affair, because the retailers
cannot attract customers without strong
brands. Without specialised sports shops, however,
the brands have no display anymore to bring the
customers in contact with the own products; and
the often mentioned brand building is still very
difficult to realise without reliable trade partners.
Nevertheless, the rifts – deep rifts – are evident in
the love relationship now. Everybody wants to play
a part in the “game of thrones”. The global sports
groups stand at one side and the big retail chains
on the other. Apparently, the smaller suppliers and
specialist sports retailers are anywhere between
and get crushed.
Some say:
Own retail,
such as here
a Nike Store,
pulls customers
into
specialist
retail, too.
Example Adidas. The company from Herzogenaurach
focuses on the own e-commerce. It is scheduled
to increase the sales to 4 billion euro until
2020. Although the brand with the three stripes
has registered growth in all distribution channels
most recently, it was the own e-commerce which
grew particularly fast (57%) in 2017. Above that, the
producer intends to increase the profit by 13 – 17
percent in 2018 with a “better price and product
mix”; that means, with the further expansion of the
own online business. Additionally, Adidas launched,
at the end of 2017, its own app Adidas Sports
& Style on the occasion of the world’s greatest
software conference Dreamforce – initially in the
US and the UK. Now, it is also available in Germany.
According to the brand, the app is supposed to offer
“the consumers an Adidas experience tailored to
their respective preferences and habits”. Online
product offers, customized product recommendations
and personalised articles, blog posts or videos
as well as real-time information about the favourite
kind of sports, athletes and products are supposed
to motivate the customer to buy directly from
Adidas.
Example Nike: In the middle of 2017, Mark Parker,
CEO of Nike, announced the future of sports
would depend on “those companies meeting the
requirements of the constantly further developing
consumers” - and, of course, Nike wants to be
such a significant company, according to the own
perception of themselves. Therefore, he issued the
maxim to “behave even more aggressively on the
digital marketplace, to focus on key segments and
to deliver faster than ever”. Even more innovations,
shorter product cycles and a more direct customer
contact are supposed to drive the initiative forward.
One of these innovations is that the product styles
are reduced by 25 percent in favour of “a deeper
selection of key franchises”. Nike understands
under more direct customer contact “to design the
future of the trade”. Therefore, the brand created
an own division under the name Nike Direct which
bundles Nike.com, the own retail and the digital
Nike+ products under one roof. In the meantime,
Nike Direct has become a growth guarantor for the
American producer. In the third quarter of the Nike
financial year 2018, Nike Direct alone registered
double-digit increase.
Both big players do not focus on the specialised
sports retail. Even more! Driven by the high sales
expectations of the shareholders, the corporations
have to achieve results. Apparently, it is not important
that, this way, business cooperations >>>
PHOTOS: VANDERVELDEN/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM, JENS PFISTERER