Resale e-retailer Rebag establishes two stores in Manhattan

Dive Brief:

Rebag, which sells second-hand luxury handbags, last week announced the opening of its second permanent store, on Madison Avenue in New York.
The location opening follows a shorter-term pop-up in the city’s Soho shopping district downtown, which has become a permanent location and its flagship, the company said in a press release. Both stores buy and sell handbags.
The company is also integrating its Trendlee e-commerce store into Rebag.com so that users can buy and sell on the same platform, according to the release. Previously, Trendlee was for buyers and Rebag for sellers, the company said.

Dive Insight:

Rebag is finding fortune in two of the best performing areas of retail — resale and luxury.

The resale retail market is on pace to reach $41 billion by 2022, according to a report released earlier this month by second-hand apparel website ThredUp. Resale taps into the same treasure- and bargain-hunting penchant that drives off-price retail. Shoppers in the space see an opportunity to acquire nicer things, ThredUp found. Two thirds said they buy better brands than they would if shopping at full price. But resale shoppers aren't all strapped for funds — 13% are millionaires, ThredUp found.

Luxury, meanwhile, is helping boost sales of accessories, according to research emailed to Retail Dive from The NPD Group. Over the past year, fashion accessories introduced between November 2016 and September 2017 drove the most incremental sales gains but represented just over a third of annual 2017 sales. Designer styles were the only brand segment to grow across the fashion accessories industry last year, accounting for 12% percent of industry dollar sales, following 10% growth in the past 12 months, according to NPD

"The move from acquisition and consumption to experiences, travel, and healthier living, is challenging the fashion accessories industry to remain relevant among competing spending opportunities vying for consumer dollars," NPD chief industry advisor Marshal Cohen said in an email to Retail Dive. "Luxury items have managed to keep the industry alive, as consumers view these products as worthy of the investment, but fashion accessories manufacturers and retailers also need to look at how consumers live and address a broader spectrum of needs, desires, and demographic life stages."

Branding firm Red Antler helped developed Rebag's new Madison Avenue store, which features a floor-to-ceiling glass storefront that allows a peek inside and the handcrafted wooden fixtures by Waka Waka Studio, the company said. The space will have more than 350 handbags including an exclusive Hermès Himalayan Birkin made of Nilo crocodile and a dye process that has sold at retail and at auction for "well over $100,000," according to Rebag. As at the Soho store, the Madison Avenue location will have a "Rebag Bar" where customers can bring their previously owned bags and receive payment within one hour or less.

"With Rebag, our goal is to challenge the perception of the secondary marketplace while still making luxe accessible," Rebag founder and CEO Charles Gorra said in a statement. "People will walk into this store thinking they likely can't afford a beautiful designer bag. The magic is, with Rebag, they can."

The moves also makes Rebag just the latest pure-play e-commerce site to go beyond pop-ups and open permanent brick-and-mortar locations.