NIKE - Channel Conflict

This business case study focuses on NIKE, an athletic shoe and apparel seller, in late 1999. Mary Kate Buckley, general manager of nike.com, must plan NIKE’s direct-to-consumer sales strategy and its policies and rules for on-line sale of NIKE products by other vendors. Throughout 1999, NIKE’s goal had been to learn as much as possible about doing business over the internet. Nike.com had rolled out an ambitious e-commerce initiative, signed an exclusive deal with Fogdog sports that allowed NIKE products to be sold by a pure internet company for the first time, and had grown from twelve to 150 employees. Now, NIKE faces the challenge of defining a new, more profitable way of selling products to customers through nike.com.