— Provides Sellers Access to Automation, Inventory Management Technology — StockX, the trusted global platform for consuming and trading current culture products, has acquired the inventory management solution known as Scout. The company’s first acquisition will further streamline the selling experience on StockX and help customers around the world grow and scale their operations.
Source: StockX
I haven’t used Scout. I initially used Excel, but I’ve chosen to use QuickBooks for my numbers because I have a balanced system of resale. I don’t overlap listings and I use a strategy that allowed me to keep track of my inventory within the dashboard of the resale apps I’m using. I wrote allowed because I recently stopped reselling on one of my platforms. I’m working on an article about that, because it’s important for small business people using that channel. Because I’m not using Scout, this doesn’t mean that Scout doesn’t make sense; it obviously does especially when sellers are using GOAT, StockX and eBay and they are overlapping listings on various platforms. Here is a list of what is available to manage inside of Scout:
I found this video, it’s sponsored by Scout, but you can take the time to watch it if you like.
The casual reseller doesn’t really have to use these tools. If you’re only moving 5-10 pair a month because you’re hitting on raffles, it’s easy to just open an Excel and input your information. Sellers who are doing much larger numbers, if there isn’t a clear way to see what you are buying and selling and how much you are earning or tracking your inventory, then Scout could be the tool that helps you to become more organized.
Two Tough Questions
Do I need Scout if I only use StockX?
It would seem that there isn’t a need for this with StockX. The platform allows you to manage your listings easily. With the improved StockX Pro (in beta) inventory management is even easier. When you look at all of the tools being rolled out on eBay via the Seller’s Hub and on GOAT via Alias, once again, an additional inventory management tool seems redundant. You don’t need an inventory management with Excel, but Scout looks good.
Why Did StockX acquire this backend tool?
This is a bit of speculation on my behalf, but it’s a very logical take. StockX can utilize the data inside of Scout to see the inventory and listings doing well on other platforms. StockX will be able to adjust their platform to counter the growth of eBay and Goat. Think about it like this, if Product A is selling quickly on GOAT, Scout can provide the information needed to understand why. StockX can then focus on marketing to move sellers back to StockX with that product, or they can reach out to their power sellers to extend lower fees on that same product.
It’s interesting when you consider Complex and Sole Collector have attempted to do some of the work that Scout includes in their app. With Marketplace, Sole Collector attempted to aggregate sales across platforms. It’s an important, time saving tool. As sophisticated as StockX’s interface is, I’m surprised that inventory management would be the first acquisition by the company. I would have thought a logistics firm would be the smartest investment. It will be interesting to watch this and see if other platforms will attempt to counter this move. I mean, think about it, StockX now has the ability to see what sellers are doing on both eBay and GOAT. Logistics are important, but this is kind of major.
