To Buy or Not to Be - Nike Nike is considered to be the world’s largest designers, marketers and distributors of athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Nike was founded as Blue-Ribbon Sports in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The company completed its initial public offering (IPO) of Class B common stock in 1980. Ten years later the company opened its first NIKETOWN store in Portland, Oregon. The e-commerce revenue grew 55% in fiscal 2015 to over $1 billion, fueled by an expansion to new countries and supported by experience-enhancing infrastructure investments. Phil Knight is the Chairman Emeritus and Mark Parker is the current President & CEO. Over the past five years, …show more content…
One of those strengths is the company's dominant market position built on a strong brand portfolio like Nike, Jordan, converse and Hurley. Its enhanced retail presence enables easier customer recall as well as help it to drive topline growth and to attain a competitive advantage over its peers. In addition, another strength of NIKE is its focus on R&D activities. The strong focus on R&D allows NIKE to renew its product line at regular intervals, which boosts customer loyalty and revenue growth. On the other hand, NIKE has one main weakness, the dependence on independent contract manufacturers. NIKE depends on independent contract manufacturers outside the US to provide fabrics and to produce its products, and therefore, has little control over the quality of products. It makes it difficult to ensure the quality of the goods sold in its outlets and may lead to product recalls. This, in turn, could have an adverse effect on customer retention and brand loyalty. We believe that NIKE has a big brand image and have more strengths than weakness and its strengths outweigh the …show more content…
Moreover, the growing preference of customers to shop online has boosted the online retail trade globally. E.g. the online retail sector in Europe is expected to reach a value of $675.8 billion, an increase of 99.1% since 2014. The Asia-Pacific market is also expected to witness strong growth in online retail sales in the next few years, driven by strong growth rates in China and India. According to industry sources, the online retail sales in China are expected to grow at a CAGR of 20% during