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The main strategic objective of the Wholesale channel is to deliver profitable market share growth by becoming the leading sales organisation in the sporting goods industry in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.  ...

The main strategic objective of the Wholesale channel is to deliver profitable market share growth by becoming the leading sales organisation in the sporting goods industry in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.  To realise this, Wholesale takes the go-to-market strategies handed over by Global Brands and commercialises them within a defined framework across various third-party retail channels.
 
Our most important third-party retail channels are sporting goods chains, department stores, independent sporting goods retailer buying groups, lifestyle retail chains and e-tailers. In this respect, Wholesale strives to establish strong partnerships with the most dynamic retailers in their respective channel of distribution by offering best-in-class and tailored services. The principles to achieve this include: 

• Differentiating and segmenting product offering to match channel strengths.


• Harmonising and standardising selling models and processes to achieve efficiency and cost leverage and reduce working capital requirements.

Rolling out standardised product range packages around the globe is an important part of the Group’s Wholesale strategy. The initiative, which was first designed and implemented in Europe, involves a customer segmentation strategy that facilitates the systematic allocation of differentiated product packages to groups of comparable customers. ...

Rolling out standardised product range packages around the globe is an important part of the Group’s Wholesale strategy. The initiative, which was first designed and implemented in Europe, involves a customer segmentation strategy that facilitates the systematic allocation of differentiated product packages to groups of comparable customers. With 40,000 different partners around the world that operate more than 100,000 points of sale, this segmentation is broadly based on a distinction between sports and lifestyle retailers that either have an up-market “brand-driven” positioning or a value-oriented “commercial” positioning. By best suiting their specific needs, this provides a platform to better exploit market potential, while at the same time supporting the reduction of complexity and costs. In addition, our Wholesale segment continues to partner with retailers on increasing the level and quality of sell-through information the Group receives on a regular basis. This creates a mutually beneficial understanding of their needs which helps us to become a more valuable and reliable business partner to our retailers. At the same time, this helps us to drive incremental business opportunities.

Retail Space Management (RSM) comprises all business models helping our Global Sales function to expand controlled space in retail. ...

Retail Space Management (RSM) comprises all business models helping our Global Sales function to expand controlled space in retail. Under the premise that the selling process is not finished until the consumer has bought the product (“It is not sold until the consumer has it”), Wholesale is cooperating with retailers along the entire supply chain to bring best-in-class service all the way through to the point of sale. By helping to increase profitability per square metre for the Group’s retail partners as well as improving product availability, we can achieve higher customer satisfaction, thus driving share of retail shelf space.

The two predominant models to drive the success of RSM for the adidas Group are Franchising and Never-out-of-stock.

• Franchising: Mono-branded store franchising is one of the Group’s prime growth opportunities, as it offers superior brand presentation. Franchise stores are financed and operated by franchise partners. The adidas Group normally contributes to the costs for brand-specific fixtures and fittings each store has to be equipped with. Further, we support our franchise partners with a comprehensive franchise concept, including range propositions, IT systems, training concepts, and guidelines for store building and store operations. This ensures that the quality of the brand presentation and the service offered to the consumer are at all times high and comparable to our own-retail stores.


• Never-out-of-stock (NOOS): The NOOS programme comprises a core range of basic articles, mostly on an 18- to 24-month lifecycle, that are selling across all channels and markets. Overall, the NOOS replenishment model secures high levels of product availability throughout the season, allowing for quick adaptation to demand patterns. Retailers have to provide dedicated retail space, co-invest in fixtures and fittings and commit to a “first fill” representing about 25% of total expected seasonal demand to participate in this programme. In return, customers can profit from significantly reduced inventory risk on these products. Most NOOS articles are on an end-to-end supply chain, thus limiting the adidas Group’s inventory risk as we re-produce following customer demand.

Our Wholesale segment is constantly working on further leveraging the size of our Group and reducing complexity by implementing best operational practices across our wholesale activities. ...

Our Wholesale segment is constantly working on further leveraging the size of our Group and reducing complexity by implementing best operational practices across our wholesale activities. The harmonisation and standardisation particularly of back-end processes can help to further reduce cost through simplified IT systems and applications.
Similarly, and already started in Europe, we are rolling out a trade terms policy that rewards customer performance either by higher efficiency (e.g. in logistics) or better sell-out support (e.g. by point-of-sale activation). As part of this effort, we have established regular reporting, delivering meaningful benchmarks that allow us to tightly control our third-party retail support activities.

Accelerating product creation, while reducing complexity is a key element to gain competitive edge and ultimately to increase shelf space at our customers. ...

Accelerating product creation, while reducing complexity is a key element to gain competitive edge and ultimately to increase shelf space at our customers. We have therefore developed a virtual sell-in tool which allows us to continuously offer a holistic sample range to our retail partners. This is giving the customer the benefit of having a “full range in his pocket”. The reduced amount of samples used during the sell-in process as well as the streamlined image creation process increase speed-to-market, while at the same time reducing costs. This new tool has already been piloted in several markets and is targeted to cover 60% of all Wholesale pre-orders by 2013.