StockX wants to expand to the beauty industry

After electronics, comics and nostalgic collectibles, StockX focuses on the beauty products market. The announcement came today from the resell platform originally created to create a marketplace dedicated to sneakers but which discovered over time how its drop model could be applied to a wide variety of products that also went outside of streetwear in the strict sense. The drop will have at its center a partnership with Revlon and Megan Thee Stallion, which has at its center a series of beauty product sets limited to 450 units. The initial price is $40 and will increase by $5 each time 50 sets are sold. An interesting strategy, which takes the idea of scarcity already tested in the world of sneakers to new levels but which above all represents an innovative relaunch strategy by Revlon, whose younger clientele has been attracted by competitors through digital first strategies on TikTok and YouTube but also by other similar lines sponsored by stars such as Rihanna or Lady Gaga. 

Inclusivity and new markets

Chandra Coleman, general manager of Revlon, underlined speaking with Business of Fashion how the new drop concerned more brand awareness than sales, especially given the saturation reached in recent years by the beauty market and the strong competitiveness that characterizes the sector, with always new digital strategies and a marketing approach increasingly close to that of streetwear. The launch will therefore be important because it will allow Revlon to make itself known in the streetwear sector and probe its terrain and StockX to evaluate the actual incidence of female audience on its platform. It is no mystery that the streetwear world often turns to the male public, but ignoring in fact the existence of the much wider market of womanswear and beauty. The inclusivity strategy works: StockX has seen a doubling of its female audience between 2019 and 2020 – this collaboration with Revlon aims to further expand that segment and dialogue with new customers.

The future of beauty products resell

Historically, the beauty world and the streetwear world have not talked much, often remaining separate. Yet in the last year things have been changing: both for a general normalization of gender fluidity, which makes the beauty category decidedly more transversal through various market segments; both because the two sectors have begun to dialogue indirectly through digital-first strategies such as resell platforms but also Twitch and TikTok, finding more and more common ground. Recently, for example, the lipstick created in collaboration between Supreme and Pat McGrath has become a viral hit on resell platforms, doubling their initial price of 38 dollars on platforms such as StockX but coming to cost even over 150 euros in online luxury retail such as Farfetch. 

More collateral, however, but always belonging to the personal care category, was the collaboration between Heron Preston and Moon, Kendall Jenner's brand, for a toothpaste initially sold for $ 15 that soon more than doubled its price on StockX. In general, however, you can see an interesting pattern that surrounds the DropX model conceived by the platform – that is, that of a release that does not go from direct retail toresell but that arrives directly on the platform with an initial price that immediately becomes subject to increases. Given the current saturation of the streetwear market, and the substantial decrease in ultra-limited drops, that of beauty is therefore becoming an interesting category in which the sales model, originally born in the clothing sector, can refine and expand, also being able to count on the very strong expansion of the cosmetic sector which, according to estimates by Allied Market Research, will reach a global turnover of 463.5 billion dollars in 2027.