The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The resale platform is sunsetting its beauty category, which it first began testing in 2018. The existing beauty inventory will continue to be sold before the site shuts down its beauty business.
The move comes as The RealReal is doubling down its focus on luxury consignment in a bid to seek profitability, which it said in 2022 it was on track to hit in 2024. Earlier this year, it announced several cost-cutting measures, including laying off 230 employees, or seven percent of its workforce, shuttering four stores and two consignment offices and reducing its office space in New York and San Francisco.
In the past year, the brand’s stock price has fallen by over 80 percent.
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The RealReal Announces Layoffs, Store Closures
In an effort to cut costs, the luxury resale platform will lay off 230 employees and close four stores this year, the company said in an SEC filing Thursday.
By selling existing formulas under their own name, retailers can tap into the lucrative beauty market without investing in custom formulations. But that doesn’t mean the private label model is an easy win.
The San Francisco-based company is hoping to tap growing consumer demand for financing for cosmetic treatments among other services.
Once thought of as long-term disruptors who would change the way we shop forever, multi-brand online retailers that sell cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and more are facing multiple headwinds.
Prestige makeup is fashion’s category expansion du jour. But even the market’s most powerful players could learn a thing or two from its celebrity-backed competition.