For what seems like forever, Nike and Adidas have held the top spots as the go-to destinations for men’s footwear — but it looks as though their reign has come to an end. According to reports, a new survey by Goldman Sachs and Condé Nast concludes that Amazon has eclipsed the two sportswear behemoths.
The survey found that of about 1,500 U.S. consumers ages 13 to 34, men “consistently rank Amazon as their top retail destination” across product categories, including clothing, handbags and briefcases, shoes and luxury goods. Amazon was listed as their second-favorite place to shop for athletic apparel, underwear and grooming items.
Of course, the cards were stacked heavily in Amazon’s favor, considering its extensive inventory, easy-to-use search function and convenient Prime shipping — three contributors to its very high traffic numbers (the retailer sees an average of 1.74 billion visits per month, compared with Nike’s 23 million and Adidas’ 10 million).
In a desktop and mobile traffic analysis done by digital intelligence company SimilarWeb from Jan. 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, it found that many users turn to Amazon to search for — and ultimately purchase — Nike and Adidas styles.
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In fact, Amazon has reported that 70 percent of all purchases start on the site (in the fourth quarter of 2017, shoppers searched Nike keywords on Amazon 6.8 million times and Adidas 4.5 million times). And interestingly enough, more than a quarter of Nike’s visitors and 15.4 percent of Adidas shoppers navigated to Amazon in the same session. Seven percent of these visitors resulted in a sale on Amazon.
But instead of fighting the competition, Nike and Adidas have done the opposite, joining forces with the e-commerce giant. Nike teamed up with Amazon last summer to supply a limited assortment of footwear, apparel and gear — a strategic move that analysts say could generate revenue up to $500 million. Meanwhile, Adidas participated in Amazon Prime Wardrobe, an initiative introduced last year that allowed Prime members to order, try on and return clothes for free.
Evidently, all of this is just the beginning. At the end of last year, Nike CEO Mark Parker announced that the brand would continue to explore its partnership with Amazon, telling investors: “We’ve seen good sell-through on the limited selection of products that we have offered.” And when commenting on Nike’s quarterly results in June this year, he simply said, “On Amazon, I would just say that our partnership is progressing well.”
