Next year, according to CMDsport, Adidas will be doubling the minimum order for any Spanish buying groups from €1 million to €2 million.
While most of Spain’s numerous buying groups already exceed the threshold, certain retailers tell the Spanish trade paper that they believe Adidas is ratcheting up its strategy to favor quality over quantity in its distribution, and fear that the threshold will continue to rise over the next few years. This will in turn compel the groups to place ever bigger bets on the German brand’s products, and to lighten their orders elsewhere.
Like Nike before it, moreover, Adidas will be requiring its buying groups to operate all their affiliated stores under a single banner, like Intersport. Hence the Base group’s announcement to partners that they will have to be operating under the Base name by January 2023. Many others don’t have this requirement. According to one of CMD’s sources, this second measure is indeed revealing the limits of certain partners’ desire to carry Adidas merchandise.
In any case, Adidas did not restrict access to its catalog for assortments purchased over the past few months for spring/summer 2022. One retailer remarked to CMD that Adidas’ measures are “normal” insofar as they provide access to saleable products, but it’s a different matter when access is limited within a collection, as with the Originals line.
Yet another source saw the changes as positive, as they should bolster the buying groups’ relationships with both Adidas and other potential partners.
In March, Adidas announced a global strategy, running through 2025, to boost its direct-to-consumer (DTC) and digital sales channels. It wants DTC to account for half of its sales four years from now.
