It’s a bit presumptuous for me to make a list saying that StockX should fix things. The company has shifted into electronics and during the quarantine, they grew website traffic by 3 million visitors (SRRRA). Since 2018, I’ve sold 1.8 million dollars in shoes on the platform. This includes the 4 months of not working from April to July. StockX is rolling along just fine… but not really.
The site is entering the critical fourth year. In e-commerce I have always stated that a new site has about a four year window to grow and then the growth levels off and the site has to become an aggregator of things to continue growing. What has to be aggregated? Content, more consumers of course, and in the case of StockX it has to expand to a more diverse product mix since the site doesn’t carry its own inventory. The picture at the head of this post and the video below is to give you, the reader, a look at what I thought was a glitch.
This quick video doesn’t have audio. It is to show the StockX tech team the glitch that can lead to late shipments. I am attempting to bulk ship sneakers that come in bigger than usual boxes. This is much easier than buying oversized boxes. The problem is the dashboard of the shipping page allowed me to do 4 individual boxes, 1 bulk shipment with 12 pair, but when I attempt to pack the last 9 shoes the screen turns grey and doesn’t allow me to add to the bulk shipment. The last time this happened and I shipped the shoes 4500 dollars was in limbo until StockX worked out the glitch.
I shot this video so the tech team could see the problem in real time. Solution and Response from StockX: Shoes that have to ship to a different destination can’t be added into a bulk box. Those shoes must be shipped individually.
Why would I start this list with a problem, that wasn’t really a problem? Because StockX is the most elegant resale platform in the game. The problems the site has aren’t major, but they are just enough to prevent the site from maintaining its dominance as other platforms offer solutions to the problems I’m about to list.
What are the 5 things StockX needs to fix?
- StockX does not accept boxes that are damaged. Why is this a problem? Resale shoes are purchased from retail outlets. These shoes sit in storerooms and they are stacked incorrectly due to the rush of customers at retail trying on shoes. Smaller boxes stacked on bigger boxes created bent boxes. Pulling shoes from shelves, creates ripped boxes. Shipping can lead to crushed boxes. Give the customer the option to accept the damaged box. Ask a customer if they want a pair of Air Jordan 1 Mocha with a damaged box, but they are deadstock and the answer will be, “damn right I do.” B-Grades – GOAT, Flight Club, eBay all accept and show options for B-Grades. Give the customer the option.
- StockX needs a faster option for listing footwear. The benefit of having one listing for every seller is that no one has to spend time taking pictures and listing shoes. The problem with this is employees at StockX don’t have any means of knowing every shoe that is released. If StockX developed a faster option for adding footwear to the site, they could add more users.
- StockX should provide a service for easy fixes. I know deadstock means a shoe hasn’t been tried on… but let’s be real. Shoes are going to be tried on. This doesn’t mean there is damage. It does mean that a shoe might touch a dirty sneaker store floor. The outsoles may have dirt on them. In many instances an authenticator with a Shout wipe could take 30 seconds to wipe a shoe instead of returning a shoe that has obviously not been worn (no toebox creasing, no sockliner lint, or insole damage) before sending it back where the customer cleans it and resales it.
- I mentioned this in my last book, Sneaker Resale and Retail in the New Normal, and I also discussed this in my SRRRA research. I show an outlier in pricing that exists due to brand doors. I understand StockX is an auction site with the price set by the seller. I sell below retail sometimes, but it’s out of necessity, not because I want to do so. StockX needs to maintain SRP for 2 weeks. This will create a healthier resale marketplace.
- StockX can differentiate itself with a more hands on customer service experience. I know it’s time consuming to answer questions from people new to the site. The constant question of, “Where is my payout?” and “Where is my package?”, could be left to FAQs, but the inherent advantage of eBay is that you know your seller and now that eBay is offering an authentication service and they’ve removed seller fees, it’s becoming a more attractive service again, but eBay is still flawed. StockX has an advantage if the company ramps up customer service.
Below are a few pictures of shoes that were returned. I don’t complain, because I sell between 400-800 shoes a month and my return rate is less than 1%. That’s a far cry from the 30% return rate that killed my business on Amazon. These pictures though tell a story that could come back to bite StockX.
