The business started when Eddy Lu 2015 unknowingly purchased a pair of counterfeit Air Jordan Fives on eBay.
The need – was to authenticate Air Jordans sneakers apart from fake ones.
The result – was the launch of a sneaker resale marketplace called GOAT in 2015. They built a platform where users could buy and sell verified, authentic sneakers.
It worked – the latest funding round brings a business value of $3.7 billion.
- Revenue of $2 billion in 2020, GOAT now has 1,500 employees and 16 offices globally.
- The platform has 30 million Goat members and over 600,000 sellers globally.
Future growth potential – a recent study from Cowen, the sneaker and streetwear resale market is growing 20% annually and is estimated to surpass $30 billion in global sales by 2030.
Growth hack – getting started- They bought some pairs of shoes and put them on the marketplace platform.
To look like the shoes came from many sellers, they went to Home Depot, came back with different coloured floor tiles, and photographed the shoes on various tiles.
Then the business was growing too quickly.
- People sometimes would buy hard-to-get sneakers only to resell them at dramatic markups.
- Black Friday in the USA is one of the biggest volume days for retailers. A media stunt to gain PR in 2016 announced the platform would sell the most coveted shoes at maximum retail price (the reverse of every other retailer who offered maximum discounts)
- The promotion went viral. In one day, they went from 100 users to 100,000 – they had five staff.
ATTENTION is the most valuable asset today in the world.
Today – Goat has rapidly grown beyond sneaker resale to embrace the broader fashion retail for millennials and Gen Z.
- Goat is now a highly differentiated luxury and lifestyle brand,
- focussing on both primary and resale markets,
CEO Eddy Lu, there is no other player globally offering primary and resale, new and used on one platform.
Growth in 2020
- the apparel business grew 500 per cent from 2019 to 2020,
- the sneakers division grew 100 per cent,
Supplier growth – partnered with 350 brands – including Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Versace, since they launched apparel in 2019.
How does GOAT differentiate itself from other sneaker eCommerce sites?
- Website – visually, it is the next generation. It is worth scrolling through and seeing how well the site functions.
- Sellers ship shoes to GOAT, which then mail them to buyers. The detection of fake shoes – artificial intelligence scans each shoe then humans final check to weed out the fakes.
- GOAT builds trust through authentic products and content distributed across social media channels.
Content generation – the intended audience is anyone looking to be inspired and curious about the history and stories of sneakers and the communities that influence them.
A brand has to stand for something.
Goat is not the cheapest. They aspire to be the most trusted place for buying this exclusive inventory.
Marketing – Goat attracts new users through social media channels, especially Facebook.
Once users had entered the top of the marketing funnel, the team focused on sharing contextual messaging to progress those users to purchase.
After conversion, the team focused on driving repeat purchases with lifecycle marketing.
The users engaging with the mobile app and visiting the website had a higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) than users who engaged on either platform alone.
The marketing focus is on getting web visitors to download the app and vice-versa.
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If you have read this far, thank you for your attention. It means a lot. I hope this helped you even a little bit in better making sense of this topic. If so please share it with a friend who might also benefit from it.
Thanks for reading,
David
