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  • April 2021 (Revised July 2021)
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StockX: The Stock Market of Things (Abridged)

By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:11
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Abstract

Founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Greg Schwartz, StockX was an online platform where users could buy and sell unworn luxury and limited-edition sneakers. Sneaker resale prices often fluctuated over time based on supply and demand, creating a robust secondary market that bore similarities to the stock market. Inspired by these similarities, StockX’s co-founders created a secondary platform that tracked sneaker resale prices over time and that emphasized authenticity, anonymity, and transparency. In 2017, StockX began to experiment with ways to expand from the secondary market into the primary market, using a new type of online auction known as an initial product offering (IPO). Based on the results of its first IPOs, was StockX on the right track with its strategy to expand into the primary market?

Keywords

Markets; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Demand and Consumers; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Market Transactions; Marketplace Matching; Supply and Industry; Analysis; Price; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; North and Central America; United States; Michigan; Detroit

Citation

Farronato, Chiara, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb, and Julia Kelley. "StockX: The Stock Market of Things (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 621-107, April 2021. (Revised July 2021.)
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About The Author

Chiara Farronato

Technology and Operations Management
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Related Work

    • February 2020 (Revised April 2021)
    • Faculty Research

    StockX: The Stock Market of Things (Data Set)

    By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley
    • June 2021 (Revised March 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    StockX: The Stock Market of Things

    By: Chiara Farronato
Related Work
  • StockX: The Stock Market of Things (Data Set) By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley
  • StockX: The Stock Market of Things By: Chiara Farronato
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