Rebag’s Plan to Take Second-Hand Luxury Mainstream

NEW YORK, United States — Most luxurious manufacturers have lengthy ignored the gray market, the worldwide community of consignment shops, resellers and on-line marketplaces the place shoppers purchase, promote and commerce second-hand luggage and garments. On-line purse reseller Rebag is betting that’s about to vary.

The New York-based firm has raised $25 million in a Sequence C funding spherical that it plans to make use of to open 30 shops, from Chicago to Texas to Florida, along with its on-line store and 5 present places in Los Angeles and New York. The plan, stated founder and chief government Charles Gorra, is to make luxurious resale so mainstream that manufacturers received’t have a alternative however to have interaction with the gray market. He hopes to enter into strategic partnerships with manufacturers, which might obtain a minimize of earnings in addition to buyer information from Rebag.

Rebag is hardly the one reseller hoping to work with luxurious manufacturers. The attire, sneakers and equipment resale market reached practically $10 billion in 2018, in keeping with ThredUp, one other resale website, which additionally discovered that one in three girls shopped secondhand final 12 months. The RealReal, one of many largest luxurious on-line consignment shops, already has a partnership with Stella McCartney, wherein buyers can consign pre-owned objects by the label with The RealReal for retailer credit score at Stella McCartney

“Resale as an entire is shifting out of area of interest behaviour and shifting into the mainstream,” Gorra stated. “You’re going to see manufacturers, retailers and shops trying very actively on this house as they realise that resale is right here to remain.”

Charles Gorra | Supply: Courtesy

Rebag, based in 2014, plans to open 5 to seven shops this 12 months, and goals to triple its headcount to 300 within the subsequent three years, Gorra stated. The fast precedence is to rent information scientists and product builders to work on its pricing instruments. In contrast to consignment fashions reminiscent of The RealReal and Vestiaire Collective, Rebag offers sellers money up entrance for his or her luggage.

Rebag can also be fine-tuning its Infinity program, which permits buyers to buy an merchandise after which alternate it for credit score price at the least 70 % of the unique buy worth after six months. Gorra is working to make Infinity the “centerpiece” of Rebag, identical to Hire the Runway’s widespread limitless month-to-month subscription.

Since its final spherical of funding in July 2017, Rebag has tripled its income, he added. To date, the corporate has raised $52 million. The most recent spherical was led by non-public fairness agency Novator and included present buyers, Normal Catalyst and FJ Labs.

“Charles [Gorra] has been superb at strolling the stroll, not simply speaking the speak,” stated Adam Valkin, managing director at Normal Catalyst. “He’s kind of achieved every thing he stated he would at every stage, so far as how the group has grown, variety of sourcing, rising income … branding after which additionally the rollout of the retail idea.”

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