Visualizing a quarter-million dollar business with Tableau

I didn't know that the night of September 26th, 2016 would send me headfirst into the burgeoning and exciting world of sneaker aftermarkets. All I knew was that some shoes were releasing online and that it'd be exciting if I got a pair. At least, that's what my friend from across my dorm hall told me. One sleepless night later, I was the proud owner of the Yeezy 350 "Beluga" in a size 11.

Quickly, it became apparent that purchasing these sneakers would allow me to double, or even triple, my money nearly instantly. When I sold these for a 164% markup as soon as my order was delivered, I knew one thing for certain: If it just took one sleepless night here and there to make $400, as opposed to the minimum wage I was used to, I had just found a new hobby. Slowly but surely, I began tagging along with my friend to more and more sneaker releases. Driving around Philadelphia to enter raffles, waiting in long cold lines, and staring at computer screens in the hopes of buying more coveted shoes, I picked his brain about this sneaker resale market. One thing led to the other, and I'm fortunate to have sold over 1,000 pairs of sneakers as of November of 2019. Meticulously recorded via Excel, the data I've collected has been one of the most exciting parts of this journey. A data nerd at heart, I've attached some visuals of my journey, as well as some things I learned along the way.

Selling more, faster - It was important for me to always be growing and applying my lessons. The way I saw it, I wasn't spending all this time and effort to just stay the same. Networking with other sellers, retailers, and customers was essential to growing and becoming more efficient.

Snatch the low hanging fruit - Although I began by focusing on hard-to-get items with high margins, I learned that I could sell more of easier-to-get items. As my average sale price decreased, my monthly number of sales went up.

Time is money - In my selling history, I can see that I sold Nike and Jordan products faster than the average, and Nike products were slightly more profitable than the average, although I sold a much larger number or Jordan products as a whole. Between my 2 best-selling brands, Jordan and Yeezy, I can see that although Jordan yielded a slightly lower ROI, the drastic difference in Days in Inventory makes me comfortable with a slightly lower ROI than Yeezy products. What's Next? - As I've gone through this journey, I've realized more and more the importance of my sales channels and have worked on developing my own, hoping to eventually veer away from holding any inventory altogether. Along the way, I've gotten to build and flex my digital marketing, data analytics, graphic/web design, and many more skills to build my own brand, Plug. Plug is a marketplace for buying and selling sneakers, launching in 2020. You can check us out here and follow us on social media @getaplug. A special thanks to all the unsung heroes along the way. To the roommates who dealt with an ever-present stack of shoes in the living room and the shrill bark of ripping packing tape late at night, to my family who entered raffles with me, the UPS guy who I can text to pick up my shipments for the day and will drop off tape, the friends who let me borrow their cars to pick up shoes an hour away during a snowstorm when I didn't know any better, and anyone who lent a helping hand to a college kid looking to make a little extra money on the side, thank you.