StockX, the sneaker re-seller website, officially launched the company’s expansion to the European market. The company’s platform has conducted international business in 200 countries for the past two years.
The StockX platform overall now conducts buying and selling in four consumer categories: sneakers, watches, handbags and streetwear.
The announcement of the new West London authentication center, and the release of numerous enhancements that improve the experience of the company’s international user base, will now allow customers all over Europe to receive the same kind of service StockX’s U.S. customers have received since the platform launched in 2016.
The international expansion, which includes several improvements to the user experience along with the opening of an authentication center in West London, will allow StockX to extend its reach and provide a growing number of customers access to a transparent, authentic, anonymous marketplace with increasing liquidity.
The ability to conduct business in multiple currencies, the StockX platform’s capacity to clarify complex tax and duty assessments in numerous countries and the dramatically reduced distance an item needs to travel to become authenticated are all critical improvements that the company’s European customers will benefit from.
StockX marks the announcement by hosting a European version of its Detroit-based ‘StockX Day’ in London. The event will bring together buyers and sellers from across the EU for a day designed to provide transparency and visibility into the inner workings of the StockX platform, how the StockX story emerged from an idea just a couple short years ago and the kind of impact the European expansion will have on its European customers.
“As a unique online company that has launched an original concept, we have always been accessible on a global scale, but today’s announcements shows our strong commitment to deliver the same kind of productive and satisfying experience to our European buyers and sellers as their U.S. counterparts,” said Josh Luber, CEO and co-founder of StockX. “Today is only the first step of our goal to deliver the unprecedented benefits of the StockX platform to all of Europe and eventually the rest of the world: visibility, authenticity, anonymity and liquidity.”
The new facility will not only authenticate products bought and sold in Europe, but it will also serve as both its European office and a shipping hub for the 30 European countries StockX conducts business. StockX tapped two leaders in the European e-commerce and luxury resale space to lead the European operation; Olivier Van Calster will serve as general manager of Europe alongside director of Europe, Derek Morrison and a growing team of authenticators and operations associates. Van Calster brings to the table more than 20 years of digital and e-commerce experience having served as SVP of International for Ancestry.com and in top marketing positions at eBay U.K. In his role as GM of Europe, he will oversee the company’s U.K.-based operations center and its strategic growth in the European market.
“Our European customers are incredibly important,” said Calster. “Today’s moves are a direct response to the valuable feedback our European customers provided directly to us. And it’s the kind of moves that would be expected of the largest online marketplace for sneakers, streetwear, handbags and watches (and soon to be added product categories) in the world.”
StockX was founded in in February 2016 by Luber, StockX COO Greg Schwartz and Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and chairman of the Cleveland Cavaliers, to revolutionize the ‘buying and selling of things’ by deploying the highly successful elements that equity, debt and futures markets have been providing efficiently and successfully in the U.S. and Europe for the past 150 years. Today, the company is approaching an annual gross merchandise value run rate of one billion dollars, moving over a quarter million products monthly for buyers and sellers on its platform. The team has grown to over 450 team members and is actively hiring across a broad range of positions.
Last month, the company announced a Series B funding round co-led by Silicon Valley-based GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Battery Ventures. The $44 million investment allowed StockX to expand its reach internationally and significantly increase its worldwide user access to the platform. Original StockX investors Detroit Venture Partners (DVP) and Courtside Ventures joined GV and Battery Ventures in the round. Several high-profile investors including famed DJ Steve Aoki, model and entrepreneur; Karlie Kloss; streetwear designer Don C, Salesforce founder chairman and co-CEO; Marc Benioff; Eminem; Mark Wahlberg; Ted Leonsis; Tim Armstrong and Scooter Braunalso invested in the company.
