2023 has been a fascinating year. Like many, we are yearning for peace and prosperity, yet the world faces one challenge after another. Inflation remains high and as folks must tighten their belt, growth has become sluggish across regions. And the Russo-Ukrainian war could end, another conflict broke out between Israel and Gaza.

While spending in China stays bleak, the global luxury market still enjoy a growth up to 12% year-over-year in 2023 as demand gathers momentum in the “post-pandemic” era - according to Bain & Company. As recession-proof as it seems, this industry is not untouchable when retail continues downward across the board. Even Fed has warned about dried up saving and a near-term recession. With these uncertainties, are we too crazy to launch another retail platform?

The answer is nobody knows. However, "many household startups we love today were born during the last global recession - think Uber, Airbnb and Square. These companies were founded and funded between 2008 and 2009, the peak of the global financial crisis." Cost-sensitive time can be helpful in the early days of a young company. If folks are willing to pay us in this environment, it's a stronger signal. There’s a higher likelihood that we are building something people want.

Within our space, there are case studies such as Yoox, Gilt Groupe, and Farfetch. They're all billion dollar enterprises found around a financial crisis - either 2000 or 2008/2009. We've been following them closely and wondering what made them truly stick? Though Yoox and Gilt are dead, their torches remain for us new players to pick up. Yoox and Gilt were once very hot unicorns, flooded with discounted luxury merchandise. Our cofounder Geminus (Vu) remembers how Styleforum members were flexing their latest finds on Yoox or their cotemporary bargains snatched on Gilt. During their hey days, ones could find many things from Boglioli to Brunello Cucinelli for a very good discount on Yoox . It's not impossible to snatch leather jackets from these brands for less than $500, or hi-end cashmere sweaters for around $100 and below. When it comes to contemporary brands, such as Alexander McQueen and Ralph Lauren, or more obscure brands such as Rick Owens, Gilt could offer an entire catalogue full of attractive items in their flash sale events. Geminus was able to snatch many bargains from these sites and even flip them on eBay for profit during his college years. Unfortunately, as these companies scaled up, somehow the quality of their inventory had gone in the opposite direction. Everything gradually became irrelevant, uninteresting, or too expensive to be called a discounted or past season items. Years later, a Dsquared jacket from a collection season almost 10 years ago could still be listed for half its retail on Yoox, and Gilt no longer had any worthy labels or attractive stock to look at. Coincidently, inventory acquisition is the same challenge that The Real Real has emphasized multiple times during earning calls. That's why we pivoted and took a more difficult and more vertically integrated path, we want to own a pipeline of inventory instead of being at the mercy of brands. For example, instead of thanking The Real Real, Chanel has been after them ever since to ensure they stop selling Chanel's goods. These suits are ridiculous and uncalled for.

The importance of having inventory ownership and exclusivity are again emphasized in Farfetch's earning reports. As one of the biggest players with the most traffic, Farfetch keeps bleeding faster than its growth. But thisseems to happen only to their digital platform, while their brand platform - though smaller in size, remains healthy with a steady growth. The pillar of Farfetch's brand platform is New Guards Group, who owns exclusive license and undisclosed stake in a number of brands.

That's why we must own and control from "farm to wardrobe". Our ultimate goal is to become something like New Guards Group, accelerated and amplified with technologies. It's the same old model that help Dell or CP Food to survive and thrive until this day.

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Canada Toll-free: 365-275-2118

U.S Toll-free: 307-920-0451

(1) Media, career, sponsorship, and admin thao@copit.ca

(2) Consignment and merchandising dung@copit.ca

(3) Tech and tech career cuong@copit.ca

(4) Sale, collaboration, investor relation, operation, and everything else Geminus (Vu) ceo@copit.ca

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