Investors see an opportunity to expand a VIP service in the growing luxury resale space.
Cudoni, a United Kingdom-based luxury resale platform, has raised 7.5 million pounds (about $9.25 million) from eBay’s venture arm and existing investors, The Business of Fashion reported Monday (Jan. 23).
“It is an outstanding vote of confidence in the brand and our ambitions, to receive investment from recommerce pioneer, eBay, during what has been an incredibly tough year for the consumer sector,” Cudoni Founder and CEO James Harford-Tyrer said, per the report.
Cudoni and eBay did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
Cudoni provides a luxury resale service in which it picks up items from sellers’ homes, evaluates and lists the items and sells them on commission. The firm handles apparel, jewelry, watches and other items from 4,000 designer brands, according to the company’s website.
“The marketplace brings something new and exciting to online retail, with the Cudoni credentials at its heart — VIP service throughout, premium product offering and ease and convenience,” Harford-Tyrer said in a 2018 press release announcing the launch of the marketplace.
PYMNTS research has found that economic pressures have not stopped consumers from acquiring couture and high-end fashion.
As with many other markets, pre-owned fashion retailers have found success selling via online and mobile platforms and growing their global footprints through eCommerce marketplaces, according to the “Buy Now, Pay Later Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and Splitit collaboration.
Luxury retailers themselves have shown a growing interest in recommerce, PYMNTS’ Karen Webster wrote in January 2022.
“The smart luxury retailers will set aside their disdain for the democratizing of their luxury brand and use it as an entry point to build the next generation of brand loyalists — on their terms,” Webster wrote at the time.
After having invented the resale space but then falling behind, eBay’s investment in Cudoni follows the recommerce pioneer’s renewed focus on being a platform for used items and its stated observation that there is rising demand for second-hand luxury goods.
“We’re leaning into where Gen Z and millennials are,” eBay CEOJamie Iannone told the Financial Times in October 2022. “There’s a bigger focus on sustainability, and ‘re-commerce.’ eBay is really the pioneer … that gives us an opportunity.”
In November 2022, eBay took another step toward capitalizing on the demand for thoroughly authenticated pre-owned luxury items by opening a storefront in Manhattan’s Diamond District that turns genuine items into store credit.
The eBay Luxury Exchange provides an authentication service for sneakers, watches, handbags, trading cards and fine jewelry.
“It’s never been easier for luxury enthusiasts to refine their collections in a trusted environment, and we wanted to create an [in real life] experience that reflects what’s happening on eBay every day,” eBay General Manager of Luxury Tirath Kamdar said at the time.
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