Nike Moves To Crimp Resellers and Might Cancel Orders Made Using Bots (wsj.com) 37
Nike wants to keep a closer eye on resellers. In a sweeping update to its rules for U.S. shoppers this month, the sneaker giant said it could cancel orders placed with automated ordering software or technology on its website or apps. From a report: The company also said it could charge restocking fees, decline to issue refunds or suspend the accounts of people it determines are buying its shoes, apparel or other items with the intent to resell them. Orders that exceed product purchase limits -- which Nike can implement on highly coveted items -- could be rejected, according to the revised rules posted on Nike's website. Nike previously prohibited the purchase of products for resale but the rules update expands the company's response if it identifies such activity taking place. Its rules had also banned purchases deemed to be fraudulent but didn't explicitly mention the use of specialized software, known as bots.
Better idea (Score:3)
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lottery system for limmted units can work and ends (Score:2)
lottery system for limited units can work and ends the buy rush or cases where you have an group of 5 people each trying to buy there max of 5 tickets at the same time for the group that can tie up say 25 tickets in an cart till they time out.
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Lottery system doesn't work when any random ticket holder cannot be verified to not also be holding 10,000 other tickets to improve their odds.
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There are reasonable ways to limit that - such as requiring a unique phone number and SMS verification both to sign up and to claim winnings for one.
Yes, there are ways to get temp numbers even in quantity, but it's non-trivial in terms of effort and/or cost...and should fraud be detected for a group they can silently blacklist those numbers. Let the scalpers burn time, effort, and money for no reward.
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should fraud be detected for a group they can silently blacklist those numbers. Let the scalpers burn time, effort, and money for no reward.
Email spammers, the systems that attempt to block them effectively, and the resulting negatively affected email users, can attest to the deficiency of this sort of ham fisted approach. There is a lot more nuance involved, if you want to do this well, without negatively impacting the customer experience.
Re: Better idea (Score:2)
If scalpers can make money, it is because you have underpriced your product.
You simply need to price the scalpers out of existence.
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Just adopt the Ticketbastard model. Make the products on your own website "sell out" immediately, then use an "approved reseller" channel to scalp your own products at 3-4x the retail price. Blame "scalpers" for the increase while you laugh all the way to the bank.
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If scalpers can make money, it is because you have underpriced your product.
You simply need to price the scalpers out of existence.
Not exactly. The demand and inaccessibility of a product is often what drives demand in the first place. Think of whatever must-have christmas toy comes to mind (from furbies and tickle me elmo to NES classic). Nothing about them was special in any particular way, but because people couldn't get them easily they went searching for them and often overpaid.
There's a similar quirk of retail - the $0.99 clearance bin frequently gets overlooked as 'junk' but putting the stuff back on the shelf as a 'last chan
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Re:Better idea (Score:4, Interesting)
Just make more shoes. Clearly there is a demand.
Or just raise prices and the problem solves itself. They're clearly leaving money on the table if scalpers are able to do this and turn a profit.
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Or just raise prices and the problem solves itself.
Indeed. These products should be limited to the rich people only. /mocking sarcasm.
Re: Better idea (Score:2)
Companies exist to make money. As much of it as they can.
They don't exist as sort of a "product equality distribution engine", where the goal is to ensure an even and "fair" distribution of products across the planet.
Nike should not give two shits WHO buys their products, provided that revenue is optimized.
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Companies exist to make money. As much of it as they can....
Nike should not give two shits WHO buys their products, provided that revenue is optimized.
You don't understand Nike very well. It's a "brand" company that just happens to make shoes and apparel. They're really good at forming "brand relationships" with their consumers. But they know (and you don't) that if they simply price everything at the market-clearing price, they'll alienate many of their customers. So while that make some extra revenue in the short-term, it will damage the brand long-term, meaning lower long term profits. With these particular types of products, they intentionally on
Re: Better idea (Score:2)
I said "provided revenue is optimized".
That's over the lifetime of the company.
Fairly long term.
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They arbitrarily decide to cancel the order then charge you for cancelling through "restocking fees"? I think not.
They may cancel orders OR charge restocking fees for returns (which scalpers like to do with stuff they can't unload before the return window closes).
WHY? (Score:1)
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wrong - we just dont care.
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You think people are buying these shoes to go jogging?
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no, they are buying them to look like morons cleaning the smudges of dirt off their 300$ shoes every 5 seconds then back home to subsidized housing
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yes people collect them, but they do wear them at least once to be "fresh"
I remember one time one of my buddies little brother asked me for a ride downtown, cause I worked down there during the evening while I was in college.
My gig was I needed to be on the west end by 7PM to start preparing tape backups on a VAX system so when financial offices on the west coast closed the reels could roll and be archived (it was for Caterpillar the heavy construction equipment company)
His deal was, his big brother, who ha
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Probably not - Nike shoes wear out too quickly. I can get 2000km out of a pair of Brooks or Mizuno, but Nike will have no sole long before that.
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These comments are so funny. They have no idea how cut throat the high end shoe market is.
We are aware. We are also aware that it is a product of there own design. There is nothing special about shoes. No uncommon materials. No uncommon manufacture techniques.
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Limited edition and low number releases mean big bucks for scalpers. Nobody is wearing them for a 10 mile jog.
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We are aware. We are also aware that it is a product of there own design. There is nothing special about shoes. No uncommon materials. No uncommon manufacture techniques.
No K-Mart specials ever allowed me to fly.
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We are aware. We are also aware that it is a product of there own design. There is nothing special about shoes. No uncommon materials. No uncommon manufacture techniques.
No K-Mart specials ever allowed me to fly.
Your statement is 100% accurate and yet...! Well played.
First sale doctrine (Score:1)
Nike is trying to enforce a EULA-like device on shoes, and *this* is what weâ(TM)re upset about.
I miss the old /. who came for news for *nerds*.
Re:First sale doctrine (Score:4, Interesting)
Nike is trying to enforce a EULA-like device on shoes, and *this* is what weâ(TM)re upset about.
I miss the old /. who came for news for *nerds*.
None of this violates first sale. Nike is within their rights to set terms on their store. They can not stop you from reselling (although they may try, see ebay and amazon) but they can ban your account, charge restocking fees, limit purchases, void warranties (yes, that's legal in the US), cancel orders, etc. Nothing about first sale says how or even if Nike does business with you.