Since starting Dallas’ [ ] over 40 years ago, we’ve witnessed constant innovation in style and business in the resale industry. Over the last 5 years, the pace of change has been truly astounding, as many new players, local, national and international, have joined us here in Dallas. Looking forward to 2020, we decided to take stock of the Dallas consignment scene and the many options that consignors now have here. We approached the project with an open mind, a lot of mutual respect for our competition, and a desire to establish a unique purpose that sets us apart from others. To do that, we needed to hear from our consignor community, who now number over 30k. The insights below come from them, and from our experience
Top Dallas Resale 2020
Top Dallas Resale 2020
Comparing the 5 best options for luxury fashion resale
Introduction
Many Great Options
Peer to Peer Marketplaces. DIY listing on sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Tradesy is a growing trend, especially amongst younger consignors. This type of market works particularly well for lower cost items, where the risk of buying from a potentially unknown entity is lower, and there is less maintenance required to make a sale. Most top consignors in Dallas still see the time and money trade-off of DIY listing to be less beneficial than delegating to a consignment partner. We chose not to delve into peer to peer selling in this article, but we’ll continue to follow the trend and may add features to support this type selling in the future.
Boutiques. There are a number of excellent smaller boutiques in Dallas for high-end fashion consignment that shouldn’t be overlooked. These stores are great for local consignors interested in supporting neighborhood business owners, or for getting personalized service. Martini Fashion, X, Y are among our favorites.
Our Top Five
Putting these other great options aside for the moment, in our polling, we found that 5 businesses stood out for top consignors in Dallas: The Real Real, Clothes Circuit, Luxury Garage Sale, To Be Continued and Clotheshorse Anonymous. So why are these stores sought out? And why should someone choose one over the other? We’ll break things down:
Location
Of the top five options, The Real Real, based in New York and Silicon Valley, is the only one operating without a showroom in Dallas, but is rumored to be considering one soon. Real real has a consignment office near downtown. Luxury Garage Sale (based in Chicago) and To be Continued (based in Phoenix) both have medium sized stores in the Park Villages area, along with the larger Clothes Circuit. This neighborhood is the epicenter of Dallas fashion and it makes sense that the area is heavily populated with options. TBC and Luxury Garage Sale have impressive, chic store environments, and Clothes Circuit has recently renovated to stay in line with this trend. Clotheshorse is a bit further north with 9,000 square feet of space, making it larger than the other stores. Though parking can be tricky in the Park Village and downtown, accessibility is a strength for Clotheshorse.
Payout Terms
Loyalty Programs & Expensive Items
The Real Real, LGS and TBC all offer increased rates if you consign a majority of your merchandise with them. [describe programs]. Clotheshorse also offers an 80% split for items over $5,000.
Online Resale
Hybrid vs. Online While dedicated online-only marketplaces have been able to thrive recently, hybrid stores (those with physical locations AND online stores) have been closing the gap in online sales performance. Facebook, Google and other online heavy weights have empowered local businesses to reach online audiences on a scale formerly available only to venture funded start-ups. Smaller companies can now place products in Google searches, or in Instagram Influencer campaigns with an equivalent audience share per item to most online-only stores.
Pricing
The downside of fast sales & high payout rates. It's important to pay attention to how your items are priced. Often, high payout percentage, for example. 10% loyalty program boost, can be more than offset by a low pricing method. When a store advertises that it can sell an item quickly, that usually means that items are being priced very aggressively. An item worth $300, but sold online at a 20% lower price point, will return less money, even when a 10% loyalty payout increase (e.g. from 60 to 70% consignor share) is applied. For more information on how we calculate our selling prices you can check out our online pricing worksheet here.