Reflaunt: A Startup Case Study – Enabling Luxury Fashion Resale with a Sustainable Twist

As awareness of climate change and the consequences of our unsustainable habits continues to grow, more people are stepping up to embrace eco-friendly lifestyles and support the shift toward a circular economy.

At the same time, access to once out-of-reach fashion brands is becoming more attainable, thanks to innovative resale solutions that blend sustainability with affordability, such as:

Reflaunt

Reflaunt is an innovative resale-as-a-service (RaaS) platform that empowers luxury and fashion brands to launch and manage their resale marketplaces. By seamlessly integrating with established e-commerce websites, Reflaunt drives sustainability initiatives and promotes a circular economy within the fashion industry.

Status: Active

Founding Year: 2018

Headquarters: Singapore, Singapore

Industry: Fashion Tech, and recommerce.

Business Model

Model Type: B2B, Two-sided, Product & Service

• Clients: Luxury and fashion brands seeking to enter or expand in the resale market, enhance customer loyalty, attract eco-conscious consumers, and promote sustainability. This includes brands that value brand control and seamless customer experience.
• Suppliers: Resale marketplaces (e.g., Minto, eBay, Vestiaire Collective), logistics providers (e.g., DHL Supply Chain), and technology partners (e.g., SuperCircle, Trust-Place).

It’s Like: Shopify but for Luxury Fashion Resale

Reflaunt provides the infrastructure and tools for brands to manage their resale marketplaces, much like Shopify enables businesses to create their online stores.

With some differences, though:

• Focus: Shopify caters to a broad range of businesses, while Reflaunt specializes in the luxury fashion sector.
• Service Model: Shopify primarily offers e-commerce platform services, while Reflaunt provides a resale-as-a-service (RaaS) model, managing key aspects like authentication, pricing, and logistics.
• Target Market: Shopify targets businesses of all sizes, while Reflaunt focuses on established luxury brands and retailers.

Market Drivers & Challenges

• Growing Demand for Sustainable Fashion: Consumers are increasingly interested in sustainable consumption practices, including buying and selling pre-owned luxury items.
• Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion: The fashion industry faces growing scrutiny for its environmental footprint, and brands are seeking ways to reduce waste and promote circularity.
• Missed Revenue Opportunities: Brands were missing out on potential revenue streams by not participating in the secondary market for their products.
• Loss of Customer Relationships: Traditional resale methods often take place on third-party platforms, disconnecting brands from their customers in the secondary market.
• Logistical Challenges of Resale: Managing the complexities of authentication, pricing, and logistics for pre-owned luxury goods can be daunting for brands.

Key Features & Value Proposition

• White-Label Resale Platform: Reflaunt offers brands a customizable white-label platform to integrate resale into their existing e-commerce websites seamlessly.
• Global Resale Network: Brands gain access to Reflaunt’s network of over 30 resale marketplaces, expanding their reach and sales potential.
• End-to-End Resale Management: Reflaunt handles the entire resale process, from authentication and pricing to shipping and customer service.
• Sustainable Brand Image: By offering resale options, brands can enhance their sustainability credentials and appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.
• Customer Data Retention: Brands maintain control over their customer data and relationships throughout the resale journey.

Founding Story

When and How Founded: Reflaunt was founded in 2018 by Stephanie Crespin, Felix Winckler, and Philippe Benedetti.

Founders’ Problem Experience: While scaling her previous luxury resale marketplace, StyleTribute, Stephanie Crespin faced challenges in sourcing a consistent supply of luxury items, achieving operational efficiency, and maximizing sell-through.

Founders’ Backgrounds:

• Stephanie Crespin began her career at Procter & Gamble, managing brand portfolios like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, and Hugo Boss in the Benelux market. In 2013, she founded StyleTribute, a luxury resale platform in Southeast Asia, which she scaled into a leading secondhand marketplace. After six years at its helm, she leveraged her industry expertise to co-found Reflaunt.
• Philippe Benedetti brings over 17 years of experience in technology, consulting, and entrepreneurship. Early in his career, he worked on large-scale IT and digital transformation projects in Europe. He later co-founded Art of Click, a mobile ad tech company, and UShift, a digital staffing platform, both operating in the Asia-Pacific. As Reflaunt’s Chief Technology Officer, Benedetti led the product and engineering teams, building scalable integrations between fashion retailers and global resale platforms. His technical leadership enables Reflaunt’s plug-and-play resale technology, which empowers brands to offer seamless resale experiences within their existing e-commerce infrastructure.
• Felix Winckler began his career in law, working at Christie’s New York before shifting to consumer tech startups. He co-founded VoicePolls and Votebox, platforms focused on social polling and civic engagement. At Reflaunt, he oversees commercial strategy and brand partnerships, helping major fashion houses integrate resale into their digital ecosystems. His unique mix of legal, tech, and fashion experience helps him navigate the complexities of circular commerce and scale Reflaunt’s global presence in both luxury and premium fashion sectors.

Reason for Starting: Crespin realized the potential of partnering directly with brands to connect the first-hand and second-hand markets, addressing the challenges she faced with StyleTribute.

Initial Team: The company was founded by a team of three: Crespin, Winckler, and Benedetti.

Problem-Solving Approach: Reflaunt decided to facilitate resale directly through retailers’ websites, enabling consumers to easily resell past purchases and providing brands with a streamlined solution for entering the resale market.

Early Challenges: At the start, convincing consumers and brands to embrace resale required shifting mindsets and building trust through authentication and integration of brand purchase data.

First Results: Reflaunt gained early traction by securing partnerships with leading luxury brands and retailers like Balenciaga, Net-a-Porter, Harvey Nichols, Saks OFF 5th, and Yoox.

Continued Growth: The company has continued to grow by expanding its global operations, forging new partnerships, and securing funding to support its expansion.

Innovation and Technology: Reflaunt leverages technology to streamline the resale process, including white-label resale interfaces, a global network of resale marketplaces, pricing recommendations, quality checking, professional photography, and logistics management. They have also integrated digital blockchain traceability certification for enhanced security and transparency.

Key Growth Milestones

• 2018: Company founded.
• 2019-2020: Early partnerships with luxury brands and retailers.
• 2021: Pre-Series A funding round.
• 2022: Series A funding round.
• Ongoing: Expansion of global operations and partnerships, including collaborations with DHL, Perfect Moment, Chalhoub Group, and others.

Market & Competition

Target Market

• Luxury and Fashion Brands: Reflaunt primarily targets businesses within the fashion industry, with a significant focus on luxury brands and retailers. They aim to partner with brands seeking to enter or expand their presence in the resale market, enhance customer loyalty, attract new customer segments interested in sustainability, and drive their sustainability initiatives.
• Retailers: Reflaunt also caters to retailers looking to integrate a circular economy model into their offerings to meet evolving consumer demands.
• Resale Marketplaces: Reflaunt provides resale marketplaces with a curated inventory of pre-loved luxury and fashion items.

Market Size and Growth:

• Global Re-commerce Retailing Market: Valued at $80 billion in 2024 and expected to reach $198.9 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 10.5%.
• Global Secondhand Luxury Market: Valued at US$34.39 billion in 2023, projected to reach US$60.55 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 10% between 2024 to 2029.
• Global Luxury Resale Market: Valued at $39.5 billion in 2024 and expected to reach $95.2 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 9.2%.

Number of Clients and Suppliers: Refluant has achieved considerable success, recording over 250 million shoppers and 50k products.

Potential New Markets: Geographic expansion, particularly in emerging markets with a growing luxury consumer base, presents a significant opportunity. Expansion into other product categories within the circular economy, such as luxury accessories, watches, or home goods, also has lots of potential.

Growth Trends: Increasing consumer awareness of sustainability and the environmental impact of fast fashion, growing acceptance and demand for pre-owned luxury goods, and technological advancements in authentication and supply chain management are all facilitating the growth of the online resale market.

Competitor Landscape

Reflaunt operates in a competitive environment with several key players in the resale-as-a-service (RaaS) space. These competitors offer solutions for brands and retailers looking to engage in the secondhand market.

• Archive: Provides technology solutions for brand-owned resale businesses, emphasizing user experience and sustainability. Offers a peer-to-peer resale model.
• Recurate: Specializes in integrated resale solutions for brands and retailers, offering a peer-to-peer platform that integrates directly into brand e-commerce stores.
• Trove: Operates an e-commerce platform providing branded reselling solutions with a focus on trade-in technology and a circular business model. Utilizes a consignment model.
• FAUME: Offers technology and logistics solutions for the fashion and luxury sectors.
• reCRQL: Resale platform enabling retailers to sell secondhand products through their existing online stores.
• Again Co: Provides a circularity platform for the apparel industry.
• Treet: Offers branded resale solutions, including peer-to-peer, trade-in, and off-price sales platforms.
• thredUP: A large online platform for buying and selling secondhand fashion that has expanded into offering RaaS solutions.
• Luxclusif: Functions as a B2B platform for facilitating the sale and acquisition of second-hand luxury goods.

Marketing & Sales

Main Positioning Values: Quality & Variety

Website & Socials

Reflaunt’s website, reflaunt.com, attracts about 6,048 monthly visits. The majority of its traffic comes from direct and organic search channels. Social media drives a small yet notable portion of visitors, with referral and paid sources contributing smaller shares. Most visitors are based in the United States (around 42%), followed by the UK, France, India, and Singapore.

Media Coverage

• Bluebell Group and BusinessWire: Reported Reflaunt’s $2.7 million pre-Series A funding in 2021.
• Vogue: Mentions Reflaunt in articles about Balenciaga’s resale program and the luxury fashion resale market.
• TechRound and Seedblink: Interviewed Reflaunt co-founder, Stephanie Crespin, on how the brand is shaping luxury fashion resale.
• Financial Times: Features Reflaunt in an article discussing the potential of wardrobes as untapped assets.
• Fashion United: Interviewed Refluant co-founder, Felix Winckler, on the company’s rise and how it plans to change the Resale-as-a-Service industry.
• Green Queen: Covers Net-a-Porter’s entry into resale with Reflaunt.
• Business of Fashion (BOF): Features Reflaunt in an article about emerging models of resale services for brands.
• The Peak: Highlights Reflaunt in an article about embracing the luxury fashion resale revolution.
• The Challenger Project: Commends Reflaunt for taking circular fashion mainstream.
• The Guardian: Covers Harvey Nichols’ partnership with Reflaunt to launch a luxury resale service.
• Vogue Business: Features Reflaunt in articles about the circular fashion movement and resale partnership with Balenciaga.
• Women’s Wear Daily (WWD): Mentions Reflaunt in an article about Altuzarra’s launch of its resale offering, “Altuzarra Archive.”

Marketing Strategies

• Strategic Partnerships: Reflaunt’s core acquisition strategy involves partnering with luxury and fashion brands and retailers, integrating directly into their e-commerce ecosystems. For example, they partnered with DHL Supply Chain to bolster operational capabilities.
• Sustainability Focus: Reflaunt capitalizes on the industry’s shift toward sustainability and the circular economy, extending the lifecycle of fashion products to attract eco-conscious consumers.
• White-Label Solution: Brands can offer an integrated resale experience under their own branding, providing seamless customer journeys and data control.
• Global Network: Reflaunt grants partners access to a network of over 30 global resale marketplaces, maximizing visibility of pre-owned inventory.
• Target Audience: Reflaunt’s clientele consists primarily of luxury and fashion businesses catering to sustainability-minded consumers.
• Methods: Press releases, industry event participation (e.g., Web Summit), and media features in leading fashion and business publications help Reflaunt reach its audience.

Product & Innovation

Notable Innovations

• Seamless Brand Integration: Reflaunt’s white-label solution allows brands to offer resale without disrupting their existing branding and customer experience.
• Extensive Resale Network: Their network of over 30 resale marketplaces provides broad distribution reach for pre-owned luxury goods.
• Blockchain Traceability: Integrating blockchain technology enhances transparency and fights counterfeiting in the resale market.
• Modular and Customizable: The platform is designed for flexibility, catering to the specific needs and branding of each partner.
• Focus on Luxury Fashion: Reflaunt specializes in the luxury fashion sector, understanding market-specific requirements and customer expectations.

Financials & Metrics

Revenue Sources

• Resale-as-a-Service (RaaS) Fees: Reflaunt likely charges fashion brands and retailers for using its platform, possibly via subscription or transaction-based models.
• Commission on Sales: A commission is earned on each sale, aligning Reflaunt’s revenue with the volume of resold items.
• Potential Additional Revenue Streams: Reflaunt might develop premium features for brands, such as enhanced analytics or dedicated support, and explore partnerships with logistics providers to offer shipping and fulfillment services.

Metrics

• Annual Revenue: As of January 31, 2022, Reflaunt reported annual revenue of 842K Singapore dollars (SGD), which is about 626K USD.
• Funding and Investments: The company has raised roughly $19.9 million over 4 rounds, according to Tracxn. The most reported funding rounds were the $2.7 million pre-Series A round in 2021 and the $11 million Series A round in 2022.
• Employee Count: Varies between 11 and 55 employees based on different sources, including LinkedIn, Pitchbook, and Growjo.

Structure & Culture

Structure

• Leadership:
  • CEO & Founder: Stephanie Crespin
  • Co-Founder & Board Member: Philippe Benedetti
  • Co-Founder & Board Member: Felix Winckler
  • CCO: Sofia Gazzotti
  • CRO: Alexandre Ouhadi
  • VP Sales & Operations: Pauline Gras
• Teams: Additional team members likely include technology, operations, partnerships, marketing, and customer service.

Culture

• Sustainability Focus: With a mission to drive a circular future in fashion, Reflaunt emphasizes sustainability in its corporate culture.
• Partnership-Driven: Collaborations with brands, retailers, and other industry stakeholders underscore a partnership-oriented mindset.

Impact & Success

Refluant encourages a circular economy through its Resale-as-a-Service offering

Customer Feedback

• Mixed Reviews: While Reflaunt highlights positive Trustpilot feedback, publicly available comments include Reddit users citing issues with payments and communication, particularly after selling items through major retailers’ resale programs. This points to inconsistencies in customer experience and underscores the need for improved payout processes and communication.

Success Stories

• Brand Partnerships and Program Launches: Reflaunt has propelled resale programs for several luxury including Balenciaga, Altuzarra, Level Shoes, and YOOX NET-A-PORTER Group, among others. These partnerships exhibit Reflaunt’s capacity to help established players adopt circular models.

Growth & Future

Challenges and Risks

• Competition: An increasingly crowded RaaS sector demands continuous innovation and differentiation.
• Operational Complexity: Handling reverse logistics at scale, including authentication and processing of luxury items, is complex.
• Customer Experience: Maintaining consistent positive experiences—particularly regarding payments and communication—remains crucial for trust and reputation.

Future Plans

• Global Expansion: Reflaunt continues broadening its global footprint by onboarding more brands and forming new partnerships.
• Technological Advancements: The company plans to boost efficiency and lower unit costs via strategic collaborations and innovative technology.
• Industry Infrastructure: Reflaunt endeavors to become a key infrastructure provider, linking brands, marketplaces, and operational partners across the fashion technology ecosystem.

Key Takeaways for Entrepreneurs

• Find the Untapped Niche: Reflaunt discovered that luxury brands wanted resale solutions. Aim to specialize in an area with unmet needs.
• Embrace Collaboration, Not Competition: Reflaunt partners with resale marketplaces rather than competing directly, broadening reach without duplicating efforts.
• Turn Problems into Profitable Solutions: By tackling sustainability, missed revenue, and logistical hurdles, Reflaunt positioned itself as a multifaceted solution.
• Think Long-Term Customer Relationships: Retaining brand-customer ties through the product lifecycle can yield lasting loyalty and value.
• Don’t Just Sell a Product, Sell a Movement: Aligning with the circular economy fosters deeper engagement with customers and partners.
• First-Mover Advantage is Real: By becoming the go-to resale infrastructure provider early, Reflaunt established a competitive edge in its niche.