Magalu has just gained a new marketplace: Nerdstore. The e-commerce site for geek and nerd items, created by Jovem Nerd in 2006, was sold in 2019, but recently, Alexandre Ottoni and Deive Pazos, co-founders of the brand, regained control of the online store and elevated it to a new level.
Now, as a company integrated into the Magalu ecosystem since 2021, the co-founders of Jovem Nerd are betting on the group's infrastructure to grow the business. Under the management of Netshoes – the largest sports and lifestyle e-commerce company in the country – the expectation is that Nerdstore will triple in size within a year.
“Our product curation in partnership with Netshoes, which already has experience managing other e-commerce businesses, makes us very confident in the brand's growth,” says Deive Pazos. “That's precisely why we decided to give space for sellers to sell on the site, because we know that today we are able to offer a wider assortment of products and meet all the demand in the best possible way for the customer.”
Netshoes will be responsible for producing Nerdstore brand products and for the entire e-commerce operation, from the sales platform to logistics and customer service. “We will make this marketplace happen,” says Graciela Kumruian, CEO of the company. “Everything related to technology, customer experience, payment processing, inventory management, delivery logistics, supplier negotiations, and after-sales service, among others, will be handled by the Netshoes team. It’s a special mission, and we are very excited to highlight Jovem Nerd and consolidate Netshoes in the market for nerd and geek apparel and merchandise through Nerdstore.”
Netshoes' interest in entering the nerd and geek product market has always been evident. At the end of 2023, the company took its first step in this direction by launching the Residiuum collaboration with Iron Studios during CCXP. Then, together with Jovem Nerd, at the beginning of 2024, with the launch of Ruff Ghanor, an exclusive and limited collection of t-shirts featuring characters from the game debuted on the website.
“Now, Nerdstore’s operation further strengthens our presence in this sector, which, according to the Brazilian Association of Licensing of Brands and Characters, generated over 22 billion reais in revenue in 2022. It is a market that is still expanding, and this value represents 5% growth compared to the previous year. With this partnership, we add this universe to our platform and use all our know-how to elevate Nerdstore to a new level as a geek and nerd marketplace and provide consumers with a superior experience,” says the executive.
New releases and licensed products
Jovem Nerd's first big bet when it takes back control of Nerdstore is the collection of Deadpool and Wolverine movie t-shirts, one of the main releases scheduled for cinema this year and opening next Friday (25). Customers can choose between five different prints and all items are licensed by Marvel.
Check out the options at the link: https://www.nerdstore.com.br/lst/mi-deadpool-wolverine
The reasons for the sale
Nerdstore was sold for a curious reason: high demand. The store's rapid growth and the desire to have its own production ended up becoming an unsustainable path at the time. It was impossible for all the processes to be managed by just two people – Ottoni and Deive. “We became production funnels and couldn't grow anymore because all the production was concentrated in our hands. In addition to all the work in the store, we also had to edit the Nerdcast, which required attention, time, and quality. All this at a time when we were moving to the United States and managing the retail business remotely was unfeasible,” said Jovem Nerd in the YouTube video announcing the sale.
Furthermore, the team needed to analyze where to focus, and since the founders had always been in the content field, they opted to outsource the e-commerce. “We saw that Nerdstore had much greater potential than we could deliver to it. Throughout the entire sales period, Nerdstore did what we always dreamed of: having a distribution center in São Paulo and its own production,” says Ottoni.
