The luxury clothing industry has overlooked The RealReal as an unimportant new brand, but the company is beginning to prove that it has a winning concept. The resale market for luxury brands is a growing trend, and this company has discovered a formula for success by establishing partnerships with luxury fashion buyers and consigners.
The resale fashion industry is thriving right now. A popular reseller of mass-market fashion brands has predicted that the resale industry will grow to $41 billion in sales by 2022. Census data also indicates that resale stores represent a fast-growing sector that has increased sales by 7.6% in the first half of 2018 and gained by 11.6% in 2017. Another resale sector is the online market that is exemplified by retailers such as Thredup.
The founder of The RealReal reported to CNBC in 2017 that their sales had exceeded $500 million in the company’s first six years. Their first year in business, the company had $10 million in sales. The company has also received funding from investors that amounts to over $288 million.
The company began as an online-only retail entity, but they are now expanding into the brick-and-mortar sector. The retailer currently has two real-world locations where luxury buyers and consigners can come to sell luxury-brand fashion. One of the stores is in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, and the other is in Los Angeles on Melrose Avenue.
The founder of the company had an interview in San Francisco where she spoke with a media representative about her New York store. CEO Julie Wainwright has gained renown among business startup entrepreneurs. She also is known for her role with Pets.com. Her luxury-fashion consignment business is one of the fastest-growing new companies in its industry. She revealed that half of the company’s sales revenue comes from transactions via the store’s mobile app.
She reported that a lot of her success is because of her ability to target important people to consign their luxury clothing and building a brand with trust in the eyes of consumers. She said that every item of clothing is inspected by a human being before it gets shipped to a buyer.
One celebrity who resells her clothes on The RealReal’s online platform is Chrissy Teigen. Fans who admire her wardrobe are lucky enough to find some of her items at the store. She recently reported on Twitter what she does with clothes that she doesn’t wear anymore. She returns the glamorous outfits for red carpet events, but she resells her everyday items.
She revealed that she is a larger size after having given birth to more than one child. She resells clothing more often because of this, and she reported that she donates the money to charity from selling the items on the popular reseller platform. One of the most popular places to look for vintage clothing online is The RealReal, and Chrissy is one of the notable contributors to further the cause of providing high-quality clothing at an affordable price.
When visiting the online store, it’s not possible to identify the items that Chrissy put up for sale, but a clever person could use deduction by observing her media photos. You might even come across an iconic outfit that she has been seen wearing by millions of people.