In this video I take a moment to discuss the latest news that StockX has placed a 3% fee on the purchase of products; which starts on April 22nd. I explain, although I’m sure other sellers and users of the site don’t appreciate my commentary, that no business charges a seller for spending their money.
I think what’s happening here is that StockX is attempting to offset losses on footwear being sold and in a way they are hoping to prevent buyers from lowball offers. Then again, I think after a few weeks they will realize that it isn’t a fee on the buyers that needs to happen. The platform is a really good third party sales platform and if they want to fix their margins, they simply need to build into the dashboard shipping fees on the seller’s side.
I discussed this in my book Nike’s Consumer Direct Offense, StockX and Amazon: The Disruption of Sneaker Retail. You can buy the book here:
Notes:
- At around 2:50 I said that it’s hard to acquire a billion dollar valuated company. That’s not true, I was trying to stress that I think the company is moving towards an IPO which is what I said in the book.
- At around 6:30 I also failed to state that if they want to charge the buyer 3% they can do so with the authentication fee already built into the software. The peace of mind is what StockX is really selling the buyer.
Here is a thread from Twitter where I was asked about this by Stephen Green and I answered in a long back and forth:
Hey @archbyccb… Let us hear your thoughts on this move by @stockx https://t.co/aEoGtFGUZZ
— Stephen Green (@PDXStephenG) April 15, 2020
