International sports brand giants continue to compete on the online battlefield in the Chinese market.
On the evening of February 7, 2024, the international sports giant Nike (NIKE) will officially open the live broadcast in Tiktok. Unlike many sports brands that use special space as Tiktok's live broadcast room, Nike's Tiktok's live broadcast room is its two official flagship stores in Shanghai and Guangzhou - NIKE Huaihai Trend Flagship Store and NIKE Guangzhou Brand Flagship Store.
For Nike, headquartered in Portland, USA, the competition for online and online channels in its local North American market and Chinese market is completely different.
Since the first trial of the Double Eleven shopping festival under Alibaba's Tmall in 2009, the competition for sports brands in online channels in the Chinese market has been particularly fierce.
Nike's annual revenue for the fiscal year 2023 (June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023) reached $512 billion (approximately RMB 368 billion), making it the world's highest grossing sports goods group with a huge advantage. In the previous full fiscal year, Adidas had a global revenue of 22.511 billion euros (approximately 174.2 billion yuan), less than half of Nike's.
But in the Chinese market, Nike faces more intense competition compared to its domestic North American market and the slightly lost European market compared to Adidas.
In the Chinese market, its old rival Adidas has declined, but its new rival, international brands led by Lululemon, continue to maintain a growth rate of about 30%, competing for market share in the yoga and lifestyle segments that Nike does not fully dominate. Domestic sports brands have also experienced explosive growth since 2020.
In the previous full fiscal year, Nike's revenue in the Chinese market was 7.248 billion US dollars (approximately RMB 52.1 billion), making it the highest grossing sports brand in the Chinese market.
However, in terms of domestic sports brands, for individual brands, the Li Ning brand, Anta brand, and FILA brand have all crossed the annual revenue threshold of 20 billion yuan in 2022.
In 2023, the FILA brand under ANTA Group may have an annual revenue of around 35 billion yuan, second only to Nike in the Chinese market, while ANTA and Li Ning brands will also have an annual revenue of around 30 billion yuan.
On Double 11, 2023, official data from Tmall showed that Nike continued to dominate the list, followed only by the FILA and ANTA brands under ANTA Group. Adidas and Li Ning also made it to the top five.
In terms of channels, in the Chinese market, all sports brands have established large offline flagship stores, direct sales stores, distribution stores, as well as online official websites, mini programs, Tmall flagship stores, etc. In terms of channels, digitalization is far more advanced than in the North American market.
Taking Nike as an example, Nike has established a complete digital ecosystem in the Chinese market, including Nike App and Nike Com official website, SNKRS app, Nike WeChat mini program, NTC WeChat mini program and other proprietary digital platforms, as well as three flagship stores and one official Olay store in strategic partner Tmall platform layout.
On the Tiktok platform, live broadcast has become the "important place" for the sales of domestic sports brands. According to the data released by Tiktok, the overall turnover of Tiktok e-commerce has increased by as much as 80% in the past year. This platform is also the platform with the longest cumulative viewing time for sports consumers.
At the Tiktok E-Commerce Authors Summit at the end of September 2023, Wei Wenwen, president of Tiktok E-Commerce, said that in the past year, 8.84 million authors brought goods with them through live broadcast, short videos, shop windows, pictures and texts, among which, the number of authors whose cumulative turnover exceeded 100000 yuan exceeded 600000.
Therefore, in Nike's layout, Tiktok, a new social e-commerce platform, is expected to bring new growth space for Nike to accelerate its digital transformation.
"There is still huge room for imagination in social e-commerce, and Nike is increasing investment in this consumer market to continue driving business growth in China," said Men Lijun, Vice President and General Manager of Market Development for Nike Greater China, to Interface News
According to data provided by Nike, it provides one-on-one personalized services to over 5.6 million consumers and enterprise followers in more than 260 directly operated stores across the country every day. At the same time, over 850 top dealer stores across the country have also completed Nike member co construction.
Tiktok's social e-commerce attribute will help the membership system of sports brands at the social level, while at the revenue level, the overall turnover of Tiktok's e-commerce is up to 80%, obviously attracting Nike.