Archivist wants to help luxury brands recover resale

Resale is accelerating and luxury brands are looking to get involved. The growing second-hand clothing and accessories market is hard to ignore for high-end brands, which obsessively keep their image. But navigating re-commerce as a brand can be tricky. Most fashion brands need third-party technology, but want the integration of resale with their ecommerce sites to be seamless.

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The Archivist is the latest to offer resale technology as a service for luxury brands who want their own re-commerce experience. The Brooklyn-based start-up offers a Resale Intelligence Service, which it calls the Bloomberg of resale, and White Label Marketplace as a Service.

Ashley Granata, founder of Pendant Labs, a fashion-tech studio, launched The Archivist in 2019, and the startup was a finalist for the LVMH Innovation Prize. She enlisted Joseph Einhorn, founder of the social commerce platform Fancy, as co-founder.

“I thought it wasn’t fair that brands weren’t participating in resale income,” she said. “They didn’t have control of the story and didn’t monetize the products. I felt it was time for brands to be part of this equation.

“Some brands have a rich history to build on,” she added. “I wanted to create a platform to allow them to sell on their channels. Designers have created all the art and designs that have stood the test of time.

A data dashboard that enables brands to assess the sales of their products in secondary markets around the world, The Archivist’s Resale Intelligence monitors products, collection popularity and prices over time. It also monitors the gray market and counterfeit products so that brands can take action, and allows them to source and build their permanent archives.

“We are exploring all possible data sources and scraping data from product listings,” Einhorn said. “We collect data from all over the world, break it up and put it in a dashboard. It helps brands understand what’s going on outside of their channels.

The Archivist also offers White-label Resale Marketplace as a Service, a complete white-label saas solution for brands to lead the storytelling and merchandising of their story in the aftermarket, reclaiming and improving the customer experience on the market. the secondary market, and attract collectors to generate sales at a high price and retain all categories.

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The Archivist has attracted a number of prominent investors in the entertainment industry, including Ashton Kutcher’s investment firm, Sound Ventures, actor and tech investor Edward Norton, and Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, among others.

“We want to be a true partner of luxury brands. Right now, there is no real partner, ”said Einhorn, adding that some brands use Amazon’s back-end services, but Amazon is not a tailor-made solution. “Some brands will do a project with a marketplace. Resale markets degrade the brand. We strive to make the customer journey as close as possible to the goals of their full-price online experience.

Einhorn specifies that until now, luxury brands had only one tool to control the resale of their products: litigation. Chanel Inc. sued The Real Real over authentication requests. In April, the parties agreed to settle their differences through mediation.

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“We’re talking to all the luxury brands,” Einhorn said, without disclosing any names.

The Archivist offers various ways for brands to participate in the resale. If the top priority of a brand is to launch a new line of business, the fastest way is to connect with a leading supplier provided by The Archivist.

“These are reputable salespeople selling relevant merchandise,” Einhorn said. “We have this information from our ‘Bloomberg Resale’ dashboard. We provide vendors with top-notch tools and information to manage audience, inventory, orders, returns, refunds, and more. The brand has the administrative tools to supervise everything. We power the system, suppliers handle logistics, and brands collect money and data. “

For brands that want to win back consumers in their world, The Archivist offers a fully managed marketplace. “For a fee, we take care of the goods and manage the logistics,” said Einhorn. “If a brand is willing to spend the extra money on a more personalized solution, we offer ‘The RealReal’ as a service. For 20% of each sale plus additional fees, we manage the entire brand system, including customer service. ”

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The Archivist also powers a Heritage desktop solution with software that acts as a system for the brand’s customers to smoothly check in pre-liked items and make an appointment to bring the items to the nearest retail store. A brand expert will use the software to determine a price and pay the customer on the spot. The product is repaired or stored for a future event.

The archivist enters a crowded market estimated to be worth $ 77 billion in 2025. Vestiaire Collective is working with Alexander McQueen to launch its Brand Approved resale program, an organized approach to second-hand goods by a designer. The Real Real has partnered with brands to create collections made from recycled pieces of designer fabrics that are too aged to be resold, and Farfetch recently became thredUP’s first resale as a service partner.

“We’re going to bring a new customer to the resale that everyone has referred to. What has happened is that everyone is both a buyer and a seller now. Consumers want to be more than just bag holders, they want to be participants in the ecosystem. Certified pre-owned vehicles and the ability to shop safely make a lot of sense, ”said Einhorn, adding that The Archivist guarantees rewarding experiences for the brand. current season customers who serve as a message that their purchases can retain their value over time.

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