The RealReal opens Las Vegas pop-up shop

Dive Brief:

Luxury e-commerce consigner The RealReal on Wednesday announced the opening of a 6,000-square-foot pop-up shop at 3500 S Las Vegas Boulevard in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which will stay open until April 15. The company has also run pop-up shops in San Francisco and New York City, and plans to open more in the latter half of the year, according to a company press release.
The pop-up shop features women's and men's fashion, fine jewelry, watches, home furnishings, decor and art from top designers including Chanel, Hermès, Cartier, Rolex, Stella McCartney, Gucci and other luxury brands.
Clients can also drop off items to be consigned and valued by The RealReal's staff of gemologists, horologists, art curators and authentication specialists. Over the 2017 holiday season, the company opened a permanent flagship store in New York City’s Soho fashion district.

Dive Insight:

While many U.S. full-price retailers (particularly department stores) are experiencing soft consumer demand, the "re-commerce sector" is thriving, and online resale in particular is one of the fastest-growing sectors in retail, according to a report last year from Coresight Research (formerly Fung Global Retail & Technology). The total U.S. apparel resale market (brick-and-mortar and online) will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13% from $18 billion in 2016 to $33 billion in 2021, according to that report, which was emailed to Retail Dive.

Re-commerce disruptors like The RealReal, which has snagged the luxury end of the market, are growing 20 times faster than the broader retail market and five times faster than off-price retailers, CoreSight said. Clothing, shoes and accessories currently make up 49% of total U.S. resale sales, according to the report.

The RealReal pop-up shop also has gemologists and authenticators on site to value products brought in for consignment.

Jim Decker

That’s a lot of sales, and The RealReal, founded in 2011, has the attention of investors as well as shoppers. Last June, the startup closed a $50 million growth equity financing from private equity firm Great Hill Partners, bringing the company's total funding to $173 million.

The company claims to provide the largest selection of pre-owned authenticated luxury items including women's and men's fashion, fine jewelry, watches, fine art and home; consignors earn up to 70% of the sale price.

As the company grows into the brick-and-mortar world, connecting stores with its website has been a bumpy road, Allison Sommer, director of Marketing at The RealReal, told Retail Dive during a fireside chat at Future Stores Miami this month. Because the company is single SKU, it needed to develop a system that would ensure an online user couldn't snatch up an item that a customer in line at a story was waiting to buy.

To safeguard against problems like these and collect better data, the company created RealReal360, a commerce solution that offers a unified, real-time view of inventory, product and customer activity across all platforms.

"We've created a unique, omnichannel business and our brick-and-mortar experience really brings our brand to life. It allows people to interact with our experts and get the personalized service they are looking for," The RealReal CEO and Founder Julie Wainwright said in a statement.