Managing Traffic During The Sale
Bots enjoy a speed and volume advantage. They use their speed advantage to blow by human users and their volume advantage to circumvent per-customer purchase limits. When the sneakers drop, you need to target the speed and volume advantages simultaneously.
A tool like a;virtual waiting room;can help neutralize both. Bots that arrive before the sale starts are placed in a pre-queue together with legitimate users. When the event launches, everyone in the pre-queue is randomized. This eliminates any advantage in arriving early or hitting the web page milliseconds after the start of the sale.
Retailers can require visitors to enter known data, such as a membership number, email address, or drivers license ID to enter the virtual waiting room. Combining known data makes impersonating real users exceptionally expensive and complex. This makes it a powerful tool to combat bots volume advantage.
Virtual waiting rooms create a highly transparent online experience by giving detailed information on place in line and estimated waiting time.
And a virtual waiting room has the added benefit of giving you full control over traffic inflow so demand doesnt crash your site. This can happen from human shoppers alone, but bot traffic only makes it worse. Placing visitors in a first-in, first-out online queue off your infrastructure keeps your website performing its best when you need it most.
Where And How To Buy And Sell Shoes
Now that you have the shoes, you must find the best channels where you can sell them to turn in a profit.
You can start by creating an account on a consignment shop like StockX to resell the shoes there. Both sites serve as middlemen between buyer and seller. Therefore, you deal directly with either website to sell your shoes. Send them the sneakers when youve chosen the highest bid, and they will take care of the rest.
Sites like StockX are convenient ways to sell your shoes and ensures buyers that they wont be duped by fake sneakers.
On the flipside, you dont get the personal touch from consignment stores that go with seller-to-buyer transactions. However, if youre not much of a salesman or a people person, then this shouldnt be a problem.
If you want the traditional way of reselling shoes, you can always go the way of Facebook Groups, Craigslist, and eBay. These sites allow you to put your personal touch on your pairs product page.;
As a best practice, you need to be descriptive and detailed as possible about the sneakers. Leave no stone unturned and make sure that you are honest in your description. Assuming that youre a new seller, itll take time before buyers warm up to you. Therefore, you need to keep working on gaining the trust of buyers and continue marching forward.;
Preventing Account Creation & Takeover
When bot operators try to buy many pairs of sneakers, they need several accounts for the purchases.
On account creation, bot mitigation tools like;Akamai, Imperva,;and PerimeterX validate biometric data like mouse movements, mobile swipe, and accelerometer data to distinguish bots from real users, and then feed that data into machine learning algorithms. You can also block or enforce Googles reCAPTCHA on traffic from known bot hosting providers and outdated browsers typically used to run bots.
Read Also: Who Sells Cole Haan Shoes
How To Buy & Sell The Most Expensive And Sought
Ever since the 70s, there are only two brands that mattered to most sneakerheads: Nike and Adidas.
Both brands have produced lines of sneakers and shoes for athletes and artists. Some of those lines have withstood time and exponentially increased their value since their release. Some brands have made waves and are poised to make one . However, if youre in the sneaker industry, you cant go wrong with these two brands.
Below are some of the more popular expensive shoes in the market pioneered by the two brands:
Most Popular Expensive Shoes to Resell
As mentioned, there are other up-and-comer brands with pairs of sneakers worth looking into. Thanks to Stephen Curry, Under Armours stock is rising. And while Big Baller Brand built;their brand around hype , the $500 pair of kicks theyre selling is interesting to say very least.
That being said, when youre starting out with flipping sneakers and learning about the resale market for popular sneakers, you should stick with the most popular brands.
In the beginning, learning about the sneaker resale market, secondary markets, and spotting fake sneakers will take up plenty of time and energy. You dont need to be speculating until you get your sneaker game up to snuff!
How To Succeed On Nike Snkrs In 2021
A lot has changed since the very first days of buying sneakers online.
Following the first days of online drops, it became exponentially harder to secure a pair of sneakers for the average individual.;Sellout times got shorter and shorter, making people, including the retailers of themselves, question whether or not the users were human or not.
Turns out, some of these record times were not humans with fast fingers, but clever humans using software that they or others built to benefit them.
Manufacturers now have resorted to letting people win a chance to buy the shoemore on this later.
Sophisticated sneaker bots have come on to the scene, causing many brands and companies to wage war against those who make use of the nifty software, which still works in the hands of those with expert knowledge.
When the demand continued to remain astronomically high and supply got lower, resale prices skyrocketed, bringing outsiders onto the scene who wanted to play the game so they could make a few dollars .
Read Also: What Are The Best Waterproof Shoes
How Much Can You Make Reselling Shoes
The short answer? Millions.
JV is a guy making six figures a year reselling shoes. He got his start flipping sneakers as a side gig while working retail. After 4 months in, he was clearing over $10,000 per month.
Hell teach you how to do the same thing he does, clear the big bucks, in his online course. If you add the code NICHEMONEY, you can get an extra 10% off.;
Reselling shoes isnt a rare phenomenon. A quick look at Amazon and eBay will reveal you a secondhand pair of sneakers up for grabs for every brand new pair. The process of shoe selling is all too common that there are people who made reselling shoes a profitable full-time job.
However, there are only a handful of people who have built an empire as shoe resellers. Arguably the most successful sneaker reseller is Benjamin Kapelushnik. Also known as Benjamin Kickz and owner of the sneaker marketplace Sneaker Don, he started in the business at 13 in 2013 and made it big two years after.
He rose to fame as the shoe supplier to DJ Khaled who referred him to his friends in the music and entertainment industry. He made his first million in 2016 and had been reselling rare and expensive shoes and sneakers to high-ticket clients since then.
Sneaker collecting is a thing and for individuals who can get a good deal on rare or hard to find sneakers like a limited release commemorative pair of Nike Air Jordan 2 Just Don, the Nike SB Dunk, or others, it can be ridiculously profitable to be reselling sneakers.;
Nike Air Yeezy 2 Red October
Via StockX
Peak Resell: $10,240
Release Date: 02/09/2014
As you can see these kicks can earn you a massive profit of $9,990 at peak resale. Would you not line up outside shops to snatch a pair like this in the future?
Now since some shoes are so highly anticipated because of expected high resale value that there are often lines that are miles long. That is where the first reason comes in as to why sneaker shops use raffles.
You May Like: What Are The Best Shoes To Work In
How Have Sneaker Bots Evolved
Sneaker bots seriously kicked off in 2012 with the release of the Air Jordan Doernbecher 9.
Nike chose to release the shoe via Twitter. Shoppers could reserve the shoe by being first to direct message the company.
Quickly, people created bots to scour Twitters API and DM Nike after any tweets with terms like reserve now or Doernbecher. With these bots you could send hundreds of DMs in a tenth of a second,;says;one botmaker.
Humans didnt stand a chance.
At the same time, ecommerce platforms like Shopify appeared, making it easier to sell products online without technical expertise. With the Nike Twitter releases and increased online sneaker sales, botmakers began developing more advanced bots.
Originally, botmakers would sell their sneaker bots to shoppers who paid a premium to improve their chances of snagging sneakers. Whole sub-Reddit threads like;/sneakerbots;and;/shoebots;are dedicated to sharing knowledge on how to use bots to score a pair of kicks.
But then the botmakers realized: why sell a one-time product if they can charge a fee for every sneaker release and run the bots themselves?
And so the Add to Cart services were born. Sneakerheads go to a botmakers website, enter their order and payment information, and wait for the bot to do its dirty work. If successful, the sneakerhead pays a fee to the Add to Cart service for the bot-purchased sneakers.
RELATED: Protect Against Bad Bots & Prevent Abuse With Queue-it’s Virtual Waiting Room
Why Leave It All To Luck
Winning a sweepstake prize can be a life-changing event, but why rely on pure luck to improve your financial situation? DoNotPay encourages you to be proactive and find and save money whenever you can. Did you know that there can be thousands of dollars in unclaimed money under your name? We help you detect and claim it in no time.
What about all those unused memberships you keep and never use? We can cancel any subscription effortlessly, and you can save or spend that money on something worthwhile. With DoNotPays free trial card, you can avoid getting stuck with unwanted services in the first place.
In case you want to participate in something that can change the world for the better and earn a handsome sum along the way, check out our list of available clinical trials because they can be a lucrative endeavor.
Also Check: Which Brooks Shoe Is Right For Me
Missed Connection With True Customers
Many sneakerheads dont have access to shoes at those price points. When theyre forced to buy on a secondary marketplace, your brandmissesa crucialopportunity to connect with a real human customer and establish a strong, ongoing relationship. Bots dont take part in upselling. They dont return later to buy products from a brand they love. And they dont evangelize your brand to friends and family.
Everything You Need To Know About Preventing Sneaker Bots
Sneaker bots plague releases. But what can retailers do? How did we get here? Will legislation fix things? How do sneaker raffles remove bots from the equation? Are there other options? These are the questions well deal with in this blog.
If youre a sneaker retailer, you know bots are a huge problem in the;$42 billion;sneaker business.
According to;Impervas 2020 Bad Bot report;over 18% of traffic to ecommerce sites comes from bad bots.
But sneakerheads know that in their world, bots dominate the game. On hyped releases,;close to 100% of traffic comes from bots, according to Akamais director of threat research.
Limited-edition releases and high-profile collaborations generate so much demand that an entire resale industry has emerged.
Sneakers become assets, just like stocks or artwork. If you visited StockXwhat the New York Times called A Nasdaq for Sneakerheadsyoud be forgiven for thinking you were looking at shares of Nike stock, not a resale site for Nike sneakers.
Where the money and hype are, bots follow.
Bad bots are bad for business. They erode the trust sneakerheads have in your brand. They sever the connection with genuine customers who could return to buy and evangelize your brand. And they create overwhelming traffic that can crash your site, losing sales on products across the board.
Don’t Miss: How To Sell Shoe Designs
How Long Is Nike Draw
DrawNikedrawHow do I sign up for an in-store raffle through the mobile app?
The Process Of Reselling Shoes
While earning over a million dollars for reselling shoes at this stage is still possible, there are lots of obstacles you must overcome to reach that goal. Aside from bagging clients willing to shell out serious dough for sneakers, you need to learn where to find and acquire the most sought-after shoes.
The competition nowadays is fierce as youll be lucky to establish a client base as a beginner.
Therefore, you need to immerse yourself in the sneakerhead culture and apply yourself 100% to have a fighting chance. There are more individuals than ever involved in sneaker collecting so the sneaker resale market has room for more entrepreneurs .
Weve already discussed the sneaker industry in general above. Now, its time to delve into the process of the actual process of reselling shoes and sneakers.
Also Check: How To Control Foot Odor In Shoes
What Is A Sneaker Raffle
In a sneaker raffle, shoppers enter a contest to win the right to buy a pair of sneakers. Sneaker raffles operate differently from a fundraising raffle, where people pay to enter the contest and, if someones entry is chosen, he or she wins the prize for free.
To run a sneaker raffle, a retailer collects all entries, either in-person or electronically. Then they choose one or several entries at random to decide who gets to buy the sneakers within a timeframe.
Most raffles require pickup at an in-person location, though some will ship the winners their shoes without in-person verification.
How To Determine If The Shoes Are Fake
The last thing you want to happen is for you to purchase fake shoes mistakenly. This is a problem that pervades in online marketplaces without a middleman like Amazon or eBay. If the price is too good for its good, then maybe its a fake. But before making that conclusion, you need to learn how to find out if the sneakers are legit or not.
Below are ways that you can check if a pair of sneakers or shoes youre trying to buy is genuine or not:
Criteria to Determine if Shoes are Fakes
While these tips will help you avoid purchasing bogus shoes, its not foolproof that you will entirely avoid such purchases. Just make sure to ma careful and alert enough to keep these provisions in mind when buying.
Don’t Miss: Where Are Hoka Running Shoes Made
How Do Sneaker Bots Affect Your Business
Using bots to buy and resell sneakers is a perfect example of;rent-seeking behavior. Thats economist talk for profit-seeking without social valuein a word, leeching.
But sneaker bots are more than just a nuisance. When you sell a £140 pair of Travis Scott Air Jordans that middlemen then;resell for 10-20 times retail price, your business loses out in several ways.
Pro Tip: Using Multiple Accounts
Having one account is great and I and many others have won profitable drops without more than one account.
Multiple accounts give you as many more chances of getting the shoes as the number of accounts you have.
If you have 5 Nike accounts or even 10 or 15, you can greatly increase your odds of getting one pair and youll also put yourself in a position for getting multiple pairs for insane profits.
Many people sell Nike accounts across social media and eBay, but because of rampant scams, you might as well cut your risk and learn how to make your own accounts.
Don’t Miss: What Are The Best Shoes For Wide Feet
Welcome To Sole Retriever
Sneaker Raffles & Release Info – Without The Mess.
Head over to our site and locate the upcoming release youâre looking to get your hands on. View and sort raffles with our various filter features including region, raffle type, and retrieval method. Easily find the raffles you qualify for and keep it all organized with our easy-to-use interface. Track all of your entries by marking each raffle as entered once you’ve completed it! Say goodbye to the painful and exhausting days of trying to keep up with all of the upcoming sneaker launches. Here at Sole Retriever, we know the industry inside out. Moreover, we understand the importance of finding, navigating, and organizing all of your sneaker raffle entries. Weâve got you covered. By sneakerheads, for sneakerheads, our mission is to give you the best shot at copping the latest drops for retail. If you want to start securing some Wâs, itâs time you join the pack and for a free account on Sole Retriever. For a premium, feature-filled experience, be sure to check out our mobile app.
Whether youâre an experienced sneaker aficionado or just an average guy looking to take a W on a hot upcoming release, itâs time you learn about sneaker raffles – what they are, how they work, and how Sole Retriever and our brand new mobile app simplify them for you.
What You Should Know When Entering Any Sweepstake
As a sweepstake entrant, you want to have fun but also to win. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you play:
Read Also: How Much Are James Harden Shoes
