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Nike will not be supplying to mom-and-pop stores


Jman888
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With brand authorised distributor not supporting the local retailers, many will have to close shop. We will probably see more big brands follow this trend.  On the other hand, they may want to stop the pirated goods, that mean only real stuff are sold in their own stores.

Just do it? Not for small Singapore retailers selling Nike gear
Business Times, Judith Tan Tuesday, Dec 20, 2016
 
 
20161220_salamandsons_JUDITHTAN.jpg?itok
Nike will not be supplying to mom-and-pop stores from January 2017. The American brand's decision is a huge blow for small retailers like Salam & Sons.
Photo: JUDITH TAN
 
Singapore - SMALLER sports shops are crying foul.
 
Top sporting brand Nike will not be supplying to them from January 2017.
 
It is a huge blow for these mom-and-pop stores located in Queensway Shopping Centre and Peninsula Plaza, which rely on top-selling brands to attract customers.
 
"Its move would force many of us, some of whom had been operating since the 1970s and 1980s, out of business soon," said Gurbachan Singh, 65, who has been managing Salam & Sons for over 30 years.
 
"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," Mr Singh added.
 
Nike is one of the best-selling brands of shoes and clothing at small sports shops here. According to the 2016 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report from market research company Millward Brown, the American brand topped the 10 most valuable apparel brands.
 
Several other shops in Queensway and Peninsula Plaza echoed Mr Singh's sentiments.
 
A 65-year-old store owner, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, said: "What they are doing is wrong. I have been an account holder for over 20 years and have always supported the brand. What they are doing will destroy my livelihood."
 
Mark Penu, managing director of Premier Sports International, which markets and distributes sports merchandise, explained that brands like Nike "just want to get into bed with the big chains like Weston and Sports Link".
 
Faced with a similar situation, Mr Penu and his partner Hairul Amar had taken New Balance (NB) to task for a breach in an oral contract in 2011 by refusing to deliver orders taken in 2014. A dispute had arisen after Premier parallel imported some of the merchandise which NB promised to supply only to the bigger stores.
 
District judge Chiah Kok Khun ruled for Premier and awarded it compensation of an undisclosed sum this year.
 
Apart from Nike shifting its focus to the bigger stores, the smaller retailers told The Business Times they believe the decision is also driven by Nike's plans to grow its online stores.
 
Last year, the brand announced to investors its plans to grow Web sales 600 per cent by fiscal 2020 to US$7 billion (S$10 billion). While the Web currently represents only 2 per cent of its total sales of US$30.6 billion, Nike projects that portion to grow to around 14 per cent in the next five years.
 
Nike's media relations office in the United States did not reply to an email query sent by BT.
 
The company made a similar move in the United Kingdom in 2014. It had then refused to supply shoes and clothing to any sports shop which did not sell more than £25,000 (S$45,000) of their products in a year; and also removed their credit terms.
 
The reason: it was no longer viable to supply the smaller shops. Nike, which sponsors the England football team, had said the move was aimed at cutting costs and improving consumer experience.
 
The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) said the competition law here does not intrinsically prohibit businesses from achieving market power or striving towards it.
 
"(But) businesses with a dominant market position are prohibited from preventing their competitors from competing effectively or shutting them out of the market through exclusive business practices such as exclusive agreements with their suppliers or customers. If such conduct is found to harm competition, CCS can take enforcement action," its spokesman said.
 
It added that it had received a complaint in February 2014 concerning exclusive supply agreements in the retail replica football merchandising industry in Singapore.
 
After preliminary enquiries, CCS found that suppliers would consider on a yearly basis the retailers to be appointed for new product list and designs to be released into the market. CCS said it was not difficult for retailers to enter into or expand their businesses for retailing replica football merchandise.
 
"As such, CCS found it was unlikely any retailer had significant market power to be able to prevent other retailers from competing in the markets," its spokesman said.
 
So, in order for the smaller shops to survive, they are now working jointly with the other prominent sports brands.
 
Salam & Sons, for one, will be working closely with Adidas.
 
"We have spoken to the brand and they are willing to come in to work with us. We are looking at allotting them prominent spaces in the shop and moving Nike away to the back," Mr Singh said. "It may look petty but we have to do so for our own survival."

 

 

 
 
 
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They have been opening their own chain stores which only focus on their own brand. Unlike the shops in Queensway their brand have to compete with other brands of sport shoes in the same row of shoe racks.

If you are Nike you would do the same. You go to the Nike shop means no competitor within the shop.

 

No doubt it's good for buyers and small business owners. Buyers have a wide choice to choose from, small business owners will make money whatever the buyer chooses.

 

It's the ang moh so called business stragedy.

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They have been opening their own chain stores which only focus on their own brand. Unlike the shops in Queensway their brand have to compete with other brands of sport shoes in the same row of shoe racks.

If you are Nike you would do the same. You go to the Nike shop means no competitor within the shop.

 

No doubt it's good for buyers and small business owners. Buyers have a wide choice to choose from, small business owners will make money whatever the buyer chooses.

 

It's the ang moh so called business stragedy.

 

 

another issue with retailers selling multiple competitive brands is they go by the promotion incentive, just like Best Denki or HN, they will push brand that offer them higher incentive during a promotion. So for brands that dun provide such incentive will be left aside.

Wait for PI Nike shoes lor ...

 

 

PI got real, AA stock, or fake   [laugh]  [laugh]

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When all else fails, there is always :grin:

080-shirt.jpg

 

 

that is the major problem of buying apparel and shoes online, look good on the website but never on you  [laugh]  [laugh]

 

 

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that is the major problem of buying apparel and shoes online, look good on the website but never on you [laugh][laugh]

That's why for the best buying experience, people should go Nike boutique to buy :XD:
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That's why for the best buying experience, people should go Nike boutique to buy :XD:

 

 

go boutique to try the size then go online to buy?   [rolleyes]  [rolleyes]

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that is the major problem of buying apparel and shoes online, look good on the website but never on you  [laugh]  [laugh]

 

And even if you buy using the same US shoe size number, different shoe brand seem to fit differently.

 

one was nice fit and another too tight. and it was the length that was shorter, not the width like we normally expect.

 

some things just cannot buy online. end up got to give or sell away if it does not fit. :ouch-it-hurts:

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The big brands just want to earn more thru selling at their own shops, at their own online shops, etc ...

 

Looks like recession coming to these smaller retail shops ...

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