Online luxury retailer Luxe.It.Fwd has credited bricks-and-mortar sites for a $2 million increase in annual revenue.
The fashion reseller has reported a revenue increase from $3.2 million to $5.2 million year-on-year in the last 12 months. The brand credited strategic pop-ups for the increase, with individual sites reportedly generating “tens of thousands of dollars” in profit.
Luxe.It.Fwd is currently running a pop-up in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building (QVB) until the end of January 2023.
Since launching in July, the QVB pop-up has reportedly generated $97,400 in sales, which represents a $40,000 profit for Luxe.It.Fwd, minus wages and rent.
“We were very strategic in the shopping centres that we target, and we have lifted brand awareness with people who might not necessarily find us online,” Luxe.It.Fwd CEO and founder Miranda Gillespie said.
“It also gave us the opportunity to explain to people the benefits of reselling their luxury fashion item and make a connection with them [which] you can’t always make online.”
Gillespie said she believes that a hybrid model could be the future for certain online retailers.
“We see a huge volume of online sales for our pre-loved items on a daily basis, with most high-quality items selling within 48 hours of them being uploaded onto our ecommerce site,” Gillespie said.
“But when you look at our recent revenue rise, combining bricks and mortar pop-ups with our online sales has been a huge success for us.”
Luxe.It.Fwd has launched its first pop-up in Sydney’s Chatswood Chase from March to April 2022, which it said was successful.
The four-week temporary store cost the reseller brand upwards of $20,000 for setup and rent, as well as the bump-in and bump out fees, but ended up generating over $40,000 in online sales from the hundreds of people who ended up listing their items on Luxe.It.Fwd.
The Chatswood pop-up reportedly had over 500 visitors, with two-thirds of the items presented having a resale value over $1,000, including a Hermès Kelly bag which sold for $27,000.
A similar pop-up in Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre in October 2022 is said to have had over 1,000 visitors in four weeks, which helped sell a Rolex GMT Master II ‘Pepsi’ Watch for $17,000 and an Hermès Birkin 30 Togo also for $17,000.
“Just like some meetings can be done via Zoom - for others you really need to meet in person,” Gillespie said. “Online retailers should look at how they can create a cost-effective physical retail outlet, and they may find a lot of customers they had not previously been able to access.
"We found that some people may have headed out to the shops with the intention to buy a handbag, but end up selling one instead.”