The Rich, Devil & Others Too Wear Prada

Several e-commerce platforms selling pre-owned luxury goods have made Pradas and LVs of the world more affordable.

- Monica Behura

COCO CHANEL HAD rightly said, “The best things in life are free. The second best are very, very expensive.” True as that is, when has pricey tags discouraged connoisseurs of luxury from aspiring for the good things. And now with a host of start-ups selling second-hand high-end goods, luxury is more affordable than ever before.

For Anandita Singh, co-founder of the e-commerce platform for pre-owned luxury brands, Envoged, the inspiration for the startup came easy. In love with designer goods, she would often exchange her Louis Vuitton bags and Prada glasses with friend Manisha Barnwal for other equally coveted brands. That’s when it struck the IIT Kharagpur graduates that this could be a great business — selling their used stuff. Both left their jobs at JP Morgan Chase and along with former Bain consultant Saahil Narang, set up Envoged this March.

“Starting from picking up the product, authenticating, sanitising, photographing and cataloguing it online, to delivering it to the buyer, we handle it all. Once a product is sold, the seller is credited the due amount (which is the listing price minus our commission),” says Singh, adding, “We have the biggest international luxury brands available at 60-90 per cent discounts.”

Recently, Envoged raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Nijhawan Group’s Ankush Nijhawan, Mediology Software director Manish Dhingra and AMG Investment’s Gaurav Bhatnagar.

The Many Players

In used luxury products, the biggest concern is quality and authenticty. Singh agrees. “It is our job to guarantee the quality, condition and authenticity of everything we sell. An in-house team of luxury brand experts takes care of that,” she says. The company charges a 20 per cent commission on the listing price of products for its services.