Dive Brief:

• Otrium, an online fashion marketplace, which sells brands' remaining end-of-season merchandise, on Wednesday announced that it raised €24 million ($26.6 million as of press time) in a Series B funding round, led by Eight Roads Ventures with additional contributions from existing investors Index Ventures and Hans Veldhuizen.

• Otrium will use the funding to grow internationally. The company also launched the U.K. edition of its website, per the company statement. 

• Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Otrium has received "doubling of interest from brands" and has experienced a 40% spike in revenue during the past month, according to the company press release.

Dive Insight:

The coronavirus pandemic has been particularly difficult for apparel and accessories retailers. Apparel sales declined by 89% in April, a sign of the pressures clothing and accessories retailers feel. 

As sales have dropped, retailers have to cope with excess inventory. Based on Otrium's release, the retailer appears to be positioning itself as a possible solution for offloading the unsold merchandise due to the pandemic. Brands that sell their goods through the platform can control the pricing, merchandising and visibility of their products, the company said.

"We are focused on onboarding an unprecedented pipeline of brands and we're working on generating revenue for items that would otherwise go unsold," Otrium​ CEO and co-founder Milan Daniels said in a statement. "We have increased distribution capacity to ensure more brands can deliver their orders quickly and safely to consumers' homes."

With brands and retailers filing for bankruptcy and shutting entirely, is now the best time to be investing in the retail sector? In March, analysts from Morgan Stanley and Wedbush predicted that online sales wouldn't buoy the losses from physical store closures. In late May, Moody's analysts said they foresee the coronavirus pandemic impacting apparel and footwear retailers into 2021.