From the streets to the stores, retail, resell, and more, StockX editorial has everything you need to know about this thing of ours. (pics from StockX)
Source: Editorial Archives – StockX News
The largest 3rd party platforms for sellers (sneakers primarily) are easily Amazon, eBay, and the fastest growing of the major channels, StockX. There is a major difference in how StockX receives merchandise and operates. Via their various channels, the e-commerce platform takes the time to actually build content around the product being authenticated through their facilities. They aren’t putting on shoes and doing photo shoots, but they are taking the time to create concepts and stories around the products. They then carry the stories to their StockX News site where they are building a ton of content which is archived on the site. Why is this important?
You expected to see a sneaker above right? As the platform expands into other lanes (electronics, sports cards, and various collectibles), they are documenting those products in posts on their news section of the site. The fast growing e-commerce biz is also interviewing and sharing stores of influencers and entertainers on the site. They haven’t stopped there as the same content and authentication process for the items being sold are then being turned into authentication videos for YouTube. That doubling up of content is creating a sales funnel for StockX from an unlikely source, social media.
Social isn’t as a big a driver of traffic as most people assume, although most of the people on the web are there. This creates an odd situation for both retailers and brands. A company has to build a large social following to gain, retain and maintain fans of the channel. StockX has one of the largest gains in social media generated traffic and it is contributing to their website growth. During my 1T21 Report and Analysis I write here on the site, I stated that StockX was at 32 Million visitors an incredible jump from 24 Million last year post quarantine reopening. The site today is at 46.82 Million unique visits. The direct and search traffic remains strong, but social has shown a significant uptick. The social funnel consists of 17.4% of the traffic to the site, with YouTube at 64% of the lead generation. That YouTube growth is telling. StockX joined YouTube Dec 22, 2015. eBay by comparison joined Oct 30, 2005. Today eBay has 132K subscribers. StockX has 122K.
The YouTube growth arrives because of the constant addition of content. The website traffic is obviously due to how quickly the Air Jordan 1, Dunk and Yeezy sell out in stores. Don’t think for a second that traffic isn’t generated by product. It is… but what distinguishes StockX from eBay, Kixify, Grailed, Stadium Goods or Flight Club? Price? Yes. Ease of use? Yes. These things are given. There is an obvious separation taking place though. As StockX grows Kixify.com has dropped from 590K monthly visits to 424K. (December to May). Stadiumgoods.com has dropped from 4.2 Million per month to 3.45 Million. The picture above is an article on the News site for StockX in the widgets area, the company highlights the items being discussed. The article is easily 250 words, broken up by pictures of the products. Is a basic concept which on the surface seems minuscule, but isn’t. As other channels invest heavily in influencer marketing or campaigns on channels that host their own e-commerce StockX has built an internal funnel that provides the company with a verified measurement of traffic. This intrigues me as they have entered into my own area of authenticating sneakers. They didn’t begin doing detailed videos of kicks until December 17th 2019 with the Colette Jordan 1. They also didn’t begin utilizing their News channel until around March 2019.
For a company that doesn’t carry any inventory, the e-commerce players has certainly learned to maximize its authenticity process. Taking pictures of the product allows the company to send verification for when a product isn’t verified, but it also allows for the development of content. They aren’t treating a media company at the rate of Complex, but they are certainly moving in that direction. Complex is now moving in StockX’s direction by launching an e-commerce channel. Growth isn’t a one lane drive up a mountain. A lane on a graph looks like timber ready to be felled. Growth is a lane with multiple trails filtering off of the main road; which looks like a tree with branches of varying sizes and lengths. A tree with branches shows life. A tree without branches… that’s firewood.