Just over a week ago, Nike announced a massive partnership with Amazon, allowing Nike to sell the latest and greatest through Amazon’s extensive e-commerce platform.
With a key focus on selling through evolving digital platforms, Nike has recently revealed that in addition to Amazon, they also plan on utilizing Facebook-owned Instagram as a sales vehicle.
Bloomberg reports that although details on how Nike will actually sell shoes through Instagram are “sketchy,” Nike insists that there will be a “seamless” customer purchasing experience.
As industry insiders point out, this will be an ambitious effort on behalf of Nike and Instagram. Currently, Instagram has only had minor success with selling products through the platform. Almost every e-commerce brand out there is looking for an effective way to access Instagram’s 700 million+ users. If any companies can actually pull it off, you’d have good odds betting that it would be Facebook and Nike.
If Nike is successful at selling through Instagram, the resulting easy access to Nike sneakers will surely affect the sales of sneaker boutiques and affiliate vendors. Think about it: if you can get the kicks you want, delivered straight to your door in half a day through Amazon Prime, how many people will continue to go to their local sneaker shop?
Regardless of what happens, Nike is always evolving the product game and aspects of the retail industry. It will be interesting to see how everything pans out.