Luxury resale company Rebag opens third store in L.A. area at Westfield Mall

If consumers are opting for online sales over visiting brick-and-mortar locations — specifically in shopping mall settings — Rebag isn’t seeing it. The luxury consignment brand has just opened its latest retail location at the Westfield Santa Anita Mall, proving that physical stores, particularly those around other luxury brands, is still an important factor when it comes to sales.

Though Rebag started as an online direct-to-consumer resale brand for luxury handbags, the company now has six stores in the U.S. including its newest location in Santa Anita, two of which are in Los Angeles with the remaining three New York. Rebag’s Santa Anita location features Rebag’s signature details such as the Rebag Bar and the Hermes Birkin Wall, and will stand next to major fashion stores including Nordstrom, Michael Kors and Swarovski.

With plans to expand its retail endeavors, Rebag’s CEO Charles Gorra shares with FashionUnited more about its third Southern California location and why it’s focusing on brick-and-mortar stores as it continues to grow.

How did you decide on opening up your third California store at the Westfield Santa Anita?

Our retail expansion plan entails bringing Rebag into the backyards of our top customers. Our initial store openings in the immediate Los Angeles area were so well received, that it made coming to Westfield Santa Anita an easy decision – here in Arcadia, we’re able to expand our reach beyond LA to a brand conscious community, and we can build on our relationship with Westfield, a high performing landlord that brings in strong foot traffic and is incredibly attentive to its audiences and communities.

Can you share how a physical retail store compares to online sales?

Rebag is a digitally native, direct-to-consumer brand. As of 2017, we began operating an omnichannel model and have since opened six stores; Rebag Santa Anita included. Roughly 80 percent of our sales completed online, but we anticipate that to shift as we continue our retail expansion.

What are the benefits of having another brick-and-mortar store?

The benefits to opening our brick-and-mortar stores are endless – we are able to: capture new customers who are not actively engaging with the online resale market; be part of a physical community and grow brand awareness; provide our customers with ease of selling in a store environment, to name a few things.

By being among major brands and retailers, we’re proving that resale is becoming mainstream, and we’re providing endless access to designer handbags in areas where consumers have never even considered shopping resale to begin with.

The Santa Anita location is the second in a Westfield property and is among other major retailers and brands. Can you touch on how being in the mall setting contributes to the overall experience of Rebag, as opposed to a standalone store?

Rebag establishing a home in Westfield – not once, but twice – is a testament to the staying power of the luxury resale market. By being among major brands and retailers, we’re proving that resale is becoming mainstream, and we’re providing endless access to designer handbags in areas where consumers have never even considered shopping resale to begin with. Our presence within Westfield solidifies our standing as the ultimate destination for buying and selling luxury handbags, and brings comfort to our customers who are first-time resale shoppers and want to go to a trusted source.

Rebag just received $25 million in Series C Funding. What does that mean for the company?

Rapid growth is underway. Our plan for the next few quarters is to expand the team and grow our store footprint and technology efforts, in order to improve our customer experience and build on our status as the ultimate handbag authority. We will reach our customers directly with an in-store presence across all the top luxury retail markets in the US. As we scale, so will our tools, which we are currently expanding upon in order to best serve our customers; for example, we just released our online notifications and favorites tool, which helps hone the online searching capabilities for our customers, in addition to being a useful asset for our sales consultants to utilize as they service in store customers. Other tool upgrades in the works are data management and analytical tools which will help us develop even more transparent pricing information with our customers.

Rebag’s Santa Anita location is located at 400 S. Baldwin Avenue in Arcadia, CA 91007.

Images: Courtesy of Rebag