Le Prix: Shop & Chat with Real Authentication

 

This article is ridiculously timely as just the other day I was accused of carrying a fake Chanel bag. For real…a designer resale expert and fashion writer for LePrix who owns a fake? Bissh, please.

The facts: The bag is authentic—I purchased it at Saks Fifth Avenue. I just had it professionally cleaned so I can resell it. I was at the Maryland State Fair watching the horse races, not exactly a place I’d bring my fanciest bag to hang with the farm animals and farmers. So, I guess I need to get it authenticated before I sell it.
Of all the people who would be caught carrying a FAKE, it wouldn’t be me! Well, this morning I learned about Real Authentication and I immediately signed up because it’s obvious to me this bag—and maybe a few others—will need an extra level of protection and authentication before I’m accused of selling a fake.
What’s Real Authentication? It’s a designer authentication company that lets you authenticate and verify your item from anywhere, anytime…which means there’s an app! And since LePrix is one of the world’s top designer resale companies, it just makes sense for us to feature them in this month’s Shop & Chat.

Tell me about the founding of Real Authentication.
Real Authentication was founded by Anastacia Bouzeneris and Jenna Padilla. We met while working together as authenticators at another designer resale company and both realized there was a need in the industry for a quick, easy and reliable way to authenticate luxury goods, so we took a leap and launched Real Authentication!


How and why did you launch Real Authentication?
We’ve been authenticating in the secondary market for nearly a decade and we’ve held positions as Senior Authenticators for one of the industry’s top resellers. Because we’ve been in the industry for a long time, we’ve noticed the speed at which the designer resale industry has grown and become one of the primary ways of buying luxury goods. While we were working for various resellers in the industry, we’d witness clients struggle with reasons why their item was either deemed authentic or counterfeit. The clients were unable to find a quick, reliable and easy way to authenticate goods and find credible information surrounding authenticity in general. Even internally at our company, it was difficult to find a reliable source for authentication.
Real Authentication was born due to witnessing large companies and individual shoppers alike struggle through the same pain points of verifying authenticity.
Why are you so passionate about fighting counterfeits? 
Not only have we seen our clients get taken advantage of by scammers, but we’ve been burned too! There are few things more disturbing than being scammed and having zero recourse. We absolutely love and appreciate the craftsmanship and heritage behind the brands we service, but we are primarily motivated by finding justice for our clients and offering a reliable, non-biased source of regulation to the secondary market as a whole.
How do you authenticate?
We analyze everything—from the client information all the way down to the denier of a stitch. Not only do we have two highly-trained authentication experts who review every single order, but we also use technology that we created—Smart Database Scan—to crosscheck data within our system and identify any red flags. With the higher quality of the fakes today, you can never be too careful! We always recommend getting multiple opinions to verify authenticity though.
What are the most popular authentication requests that come your way? 
Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton will always be our most authenticated brands as they tend to be the most popular and in turn the most counterfeited. We see so much variety overall though, it is always exciting sifting through our admin panel.

What was your first luxury vintage purchase?  
Jenna: I’ll always remember what first spiked my interest in the secondary market…I came across a vintage Chanel Crystal Sautoir necklace for $100 and could tell immediately it was authentic and incredibly underpriced! I wore it for months and then tossed it on eBay to make a quick and massive profit. I was sold!
Anastacia: My journey into the secondhand market started in 1999 when I opened my eBay account. One of my first purchases was a vintage Louis Vuitton bag. It was well used, but new to me! To this day, I still have the bag as it’s a reminder of my journey right from the start.
To find out more about Real Authentication, click here.

oa here 

The RealReal shows strength of its secondhand luxury model in first post-IPO report

Analysts are bullish about The RealReal even after department store discounts posed a threat:

Analysts are bullish about The RealReal despite the unexpected discounted in the luxury market

RealReal Inc. stock soared after earnings indicated that even when luxury goods are sold at a discount, The RealReal’s secondhand goods are still in high demand.
The RealReal REAL, +0.84%   reported sales in line with expectations during its first quarterly announcement post-IPO. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose 40% year-over-year to $228.5 million.

Shares were up in Tuesday after-hours and in Wednesday premarket, though they fell about 5% in early trading alongside many others after concerns about global economic data.
The RealReal stock began trading on June 28.
“We view the positive after-market stock reaction reflects some easing of investors’ concerns on higher promotions in the luxury space weighing on The RealReal’s growth trajectory,” Cowen analysts led by Oliver Chen wrote.


“We acknowledge that average order value (AOV) was flat year-over-year due to earlier-than-expected promotions in the luxury space. However, management highlighted promotional trends in 3Q appear similar to prior years and they expect AOV in 3Q to improve year-over-year.”
Analysts say they’re “encouraged” by the loyalty of the customer base and its progress in automation.
The RealReal’s Chief Executive Julie Wainwright said department store discounting isn’t new for the company and it has already seen a fast recovery. The impact is felt more in women’s clothing.
“I would say if department stores get desperate in September, October, we might have some of that tension, again that will be offset by high seasonality,” she said on the earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript.

“[T]his this is one of the beauties of having product diversity because we don’t see it on fine jewelry, watches, men’s and streetwear, and even women’s handbags,” she said.

“While 2Q AOV was modestly below expectations due to increased promotional activity across the industry, management believes the company is partially insulated from periods of aggressive discounting given its category diversification, and the inverse relationship between pricing and active buyer growth,” wrote Stifel analysts in a note.
“As the leader in the luxury consignment space, we believe The RealReal has strong growth potential and ongoing investments in automation should drive operating leverage in pricing and fulfillment.”
Stifel rates The RealReal shares buy with a $30 price target.
The RealReal shares have fallen 44.6% over the past month while the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.93%   is down 5.8% for the period.

 OA here

Luxury online reseller The RealReal in talks with banks for IPO: sources

Business U.S. online luxury reseller The RealReal Inc is talking to investment banks about the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO) later this year, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

FILE PHOTO: Luxury handbags for sale are displayed at The RealReal shop, a seven-year-old online reseller of luxury items on consignment in the Soho section of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, U.S., May 18, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar

REUTERS: U.S. online luxury reseller The RealReal Inc is talking to investment banks about the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO) later this year, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The company - which specializes in online secondhand luxury apparel and goods - has sent out a request for proposals to prospective advisors and underwriters to manage the listing this year, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The RealReal declined to comment.

In July last year, The RealReal raised US$115 million of private funding in a deal led by Perella Weinberg Partners, with additional participation from new investor Sandbridge Capital and existing investor Great Hill Partners. The deal valued the company at US$745 million, according to data provider PitchBook.

Since then, the company, which was founded in 2011, has focused on expanding its brick-and-mortar presence with outlets in new areas and more online fulfillment centers.

The RealReal's success is built on a profitable mix of the boom in e-commerce, the millennial interest in the price and environmental benefits of recycled clothing, and the caution of established high-end brands about what selling their wares on the web can do to brand value.

Fellow e-commerce platform Farfetch went public in last September at the top of its target IPO price range, raising US$885 million.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Harry Brumpton in New York; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

ORG HERE

Farfetch delivers $43,000 fur coats via an app and it's about to IPO. Here's its story.

This story originally appeared at Thinknum Media here. To see all the data referenced, click here for access.

E-commerce isn't all deals, bargains, and free shipping. In the case of Farfetch, it's $43,000 fur coats and $32,000 watches delivered to your door, and by most accounts, there is enough of a market for such high-end items that it's not just doing well: it's about to go public.
Founded by José Manuel Ferreira Neves in June 2007, Farfetch's ($FARFETCH) mission is to be "the global technology platform for luxury fashion, connecting creators, curators and consumers," according to its IPO application. The online luxury fashion retail platform made $385.9 million in 2017 — a year where it reportedly had almost a million active customers — while posting after-tax losses of $112.2 million.
We track inventory, social, and Glassdoor data for the startup, which, when combined paint a useful, external data portrait of the company as it seeks public investment. Here's some of that data broken down.

What does Farfetch sell?

Right now, Farfetch sells over 100,000 products, ranging from "budget-friendly" fashion brands such as Kate Spade ($NYSE:KATE), Nike ($NYSE:NKE), and Levi's jeans, to fine watches, fur coats and other budget-breaking items that go for tens of thousands of dollars.
Out of all those products up for sale on August 29, 2018, the average price was $592.65.
Breaking it down by category, an average women's handbag on the platform will run you over $1,100, while the average pair of women's shoes costs $529.
In terms of what exactly is being sold on the website, our database tracks every single product and its various styles, which gives an idea of what brands are giving the most inventory variety. That title goes to Prada ($HK:1913), a company known for its designer handbags, followed by rival fashion house Yves Saint Laurent.

Most-expensive items sold by Farfetch

With plenty of designer brands on offer, you might wonder what the most farfetched (pun intended) and expensive fashion statement is on the website. On August 26, seven out of ten of the most expensive items on the platform were listed for $30,000 or more.

Most of these bank-busting fashion pieces are from luxury Swiss watch manufacturer Ulysse Nardin, which is part of the French luxury group Kering S.A. ($EPA:KER) that also owns Alexander McQueen, Gucci and Balenciaga.
But the most expensive single item, a fur coat from New York City-based designer Thom Browne, is definitely a stand-out among the ultra-expensive flashy timepieces.

App ratings

Farfetch is available both as an app and website, allowing fashionistas to order from their iPhone or Android phone (or laptop, of course). On both devices, the Farfetch app does well, touting a 4.3 star rating on the Google Play Store and a full 5 stars on the Apple App Store.

As well as filing for its IPO this past week, Farfetch recently purchased an app called Fashion Concierge that was founded by Daniela Cecilio, the second wife of Farfetch's CEO. No word yet on what this would mean for its mobile application, but it will be interesting to see how it will be integrated with what's currently working for them.

Social media presence

Along with its sales success, Farfetch has a strong presence on social media. On Twitter, its following is relatively steady above 80,000 accounts, while its Facebook page is inching closer towards the 2 million like count as the end of 2018 approaches.

Outside of its page, users are talking about the brand all around Facebook. Since we started tracking its Facebook presence in April 2017, Farfetch's most-impressionable time of year was during the holiday season, right around when the New York Times profiled the "luxury e-tail" industry as part of its year-end issue (and when people scramble for gifts):

Employee workplace ratings

In terms of the company's internal health, Farfetch employees are applauding its CEO, giving José Neves an impressive 92 percent approval rating on Glassdoor.

As Farfetch is preparing to go public, its current and outgoing workforce is beginning to grow uncertain, or even worried, of the company's future. Since the new year, its business outlook rating, based on how employees think the company will fair in the next six months, dropped nearly 20 percent.

Hiring practices

Although its future is uncertain, Farfetch has plenty of opportunities for those interested in joining it rather than investing. Overall hiring is up since the beginning of the year, but slightly down as it makes its bid to become a publicly traded company.

Most of these listings are for jobs based at its headquarters in the United Kingdom, or at several of its offices in Portugal.

Heading toward IPO

Farfetch filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FTCH. The company is aiming for a $5 billion valuation and, given the size of the global market for personal luxury goods — $307 billion in 2017 according to Bain — Neves and company just may hit those marks.
"We are a technology company at our core and have created a purpose-built platform for the luxury fashion industry. Our platform consists of three main components: applications, services and data," the company noted in the filing.
-James Mattone, Thinknum Media
*To see the data referenced in this story, click here to request access.

$70M of fake Nike Air Jordans seized in Newark from China

They looked like thousands of generic shoes without any logos or labels.
But that was just the start of the ruse.
Federal authorities on Tuesday arrested five individuals charged in a scheme to import more than $70 million in counterfeit Nike Air Jordans through Port Newark from China.
The sneakers were manufactured to resemble various editions of Jordans, which typically retail for $190, but without any identifying markings so they would not be flagged by customs officials, authorities said. Fake logos were allegedly added to the shoes after they came through the port, and then the footwear was sold to people throughout the U.S.

Real Air Jordans. (Nike)

The five -- Miyuki Suen, Jian Min Huang and Kin Lui Chen, all of New York, and Songhua Qu and Fangrang Qu of Hicksville, N.Y. -- are accused of importing at least 42 shipping containers between 2016 and 2018, bringing in an estimated more than 380,000 pairs of sneakers. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.
It is not an uncommon scam, officials say.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection last year seized $1 billion in counterfeit goods, and inspectors say they frequently come across shoes, handbags and other consumer goods that appear generic because there are no identifying brand names affixed to them. Those logos and names are then added after the items pass through customs, they said.
In one case, a shipment of Timberland boots had an insert glued over the logo on the bottom of the boot. An inspector discovered the ruse with a flick of a knife on the heel-side of the shoe.

By Ted Sherman

tsherman@njadvancemedia.com

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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How Well Known Labels Are Changing the Counterfeit Stigma

 

A Guccy shirt from Gucci Resort 2018Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv

Once upon a time, counterfeit designer goods were a fashion no-go. Buying a fake piece of clothing or accessory was associated with a try-hard attitude and an empty pocket. Take, for example, Sex and the City’s “Sex and Another City” episode, in which Samantha Jones bought a knockoff Fendi bag from the trunk of a car. After showing it off to her friends, she noted, “You’d never know it wasn’t real Fendi unless you look inside at the lining.” Later on, Samantha’s dirty little $150 made-in-China secret was found out publicly at a party—a small price to pay for long-lasting embarrassment.

But times have changed. Recently, some of the most influential runway designers have created cringe-worthy, definitely-not-real clothes and accessories—a far cry from Samantha’s trunk-plucked Fendi, inspired by the more modern appeal of bootleg fashion. Alessandro Michele showed Fake Gucci T-shirts loudly emblazoned with the label’s logo for Resort 2017, a design based on counterfeits that were popular on the streets during the ’80s. The brand’s Resort 2018 collection continued with the theme of through-the-looking-glass bootleg culture: A coat with Gucci-monogrammed sleeves became the meme heard round the Internet after it drew comparisons to a similar topper by Harlem-based designer Dapper Dan, the original kingpin of DIY luxury bootlegs, who created a Louis Vuitton monogrammed coat for Olympic medalist Diane Dixon in the ’80s. There were also shirts that read Guccy—reflecting a trend at bargain bazaars, where misspelled names (deliberate or otherwise) are on every corner.

Before Gucci’s foray into faux fakes, there was, of course, Vetements, which turned the concept of fake fashion on its head and shilled “real fakes” to the mass market. In October 2016, the brand held an “official fake” garage sale outside Seoul, where off-kilter remakes of iconic pieces nodded cleverly to the proliferation of Vetements bootlegs in that city. Since Vetements, like Gucci, has become one of the most copied labels in the world, the strategy makes sense: If you can’t beat the copycats to the punch, then join them for a higher price tag. The approach seems to be working. Those Fake Gucci T-shirts have sold out both at Selfridges and Farfetch.

A Fake Gucci T-shirt from Gucci Resort 2017Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv

I recently returned from Tbilisi, Georgia, with hoards of thick plastic “Chinatown” bags printed with the double-C Chanel logo (with the house’s name written as “Ceanhl”) and other totes combining Louis Vuitton’s classic Damier monogram with Gucci monogrammed tabs. The cheap carryalls may be considered the bane of luxury—they are scathingly, shamelessly fake—but there’s also a cheeky charm that comes with proudly sporting something so obviously not real. My colleagues seemed to agree with this line of thinking: The totes were a hit at the office. “It’s a so-bad-it’s-good thing,” said Vogue’s Fashion News Director, Chioma Nnadi, the recipient of one of the bags. “There’s nothing subtle about the fakeness of it. It’s like no-shame fake.”

Fake Chanel tote bags, a fake Versace shirt, and fake Chanel bedsheets from Eastern EuropeCourtesy of Liana Satenstein / @liana_ava

On a smaller scale, there is the rise of millennial bootleg artists. Designer Ava Nirui of @avanope has built a career out of embroidering Gucci onto Champion hoodies and merging Carhartt with the Chanel name. Imran Moosvi, aka @imran_potato, uses the Louis Vuitton and Gucci monograms in almost everything—splicing them into Nike zip-up hoodies or creating natty ties from them. “For me personally, fake stuff is more fun,” he says. “There’s more freedom to do whatever you want with it. I think the stigma associated with something being bootleg or fake is starting to disappear a little bit, because at the end of the day, people just want to see a cool product.”

But does the trend have legs? “I don’t think this design culture has longevity, because people will always find a way to overdo and ruin,” Moosvi says. After all, is there really fun in spending top dollar for an item that mimics a fake $15 one? Luxury consumers so far seem not to mind; it remains to be seen whether Guccy will have the same effect. Until then, maybe it’s more real to stick with the fake deal.

HOW WE AUTHENTICATE DESIGNER HANDBAGS - REAL AUTHENTICATION

Say whaaaaat - eBay Authentication Program

 

EBAY AUTHENTICATE PROGRAM

The eBay marketplace today (Thursday, January 12, 2017) announced the launch of a new in-platform designer authentication program called eBay Authenticate. Buyers will be able to list their items and also opt to have them authenticated by a trusted authenticator within the eBay platform. The sellers will then be required to submit the item to be authenticated prior to collecting funds for their listed item. The buyer does still maintain the right to pay for the item without an official authentication, however this new service is projected to have reasonable price points and therefore become a "no-brainer" for customers to opt for a proper authentication prior to purchasing.

Many online re-sellers like TheRealReal and selling platforms like Tradesy, Poshmark, and Amazon sell pre-owned handbags, shoes, jewelry and other accessories. They all allow consumers to buy high-end brands at a discount.. but generally at their own risk. This system has worked wonders for expanding the pre-owned designer resale market, however without proper regulation counterfeit goods have become rampant.

 

 Most resellers do authenticate the goods as part of their internal process to keep from selling fake handbags, shoes and accessories. Because the items are verified, consumers feel they can trust what they’re buying is truly authentic. This is a system of checks and balances the larger reseal platforms have not migrated towards - until now.

“We know that many shoppers may be hesitant to purchase high-end products online,” admits Laura Chambers, Vice President of eBay Consumer Selling, in the company announcement. “This service is designed to help quell some of those concerns – and in turn – enhance the opportunity for our sellers to get top dollar for their items,” she says.

As an online authentication company ourselves, we have always warned our clients to buy with caution and always authenticate before, or at the very least - after, purchasing any designer goods pre-owned. We love the precaution eBay is adopting with the eBay Authenticate Program, however if you do need an authentication today, please submit photos of your item HERE and we will get back to you within the same day of submitting! 

You can also follow us on INSTAGRAM for daily tips on authentication!

eBay is currently constructing its new authenticate program, so fees for the service remain unknown. However, eBay is likely to charge difference prices for the service, depending on the item’s brand, size and origins. The program will be made available to all sellers in every category around the globe later this year, although eBay has yet to reveal an exact launch date. The company is currently running a pilot program of the service and will share further information later in the year.

China, and other countries in South-East Asia, remain the largest sources of counterfeit goods, with clothing, footwear and accessories being listed among the most copied goods. However online e-commerce platforms have been working hard to ensure their efforts against counterfeit goods do not go unseen. Earlier this month Alibaba filed a lawsuits against two vendors who were allegedly selling counterfeit goods, the first legal action of its kind to occur in China, a few weeks after US regulators accused the company of not doing enough against counterfeiters.