Irvine-based luxury reseller Marque Luxury ended its 2020 growth on a high note with the purchase of the blog Closet Full of Cash.
The deal, on undisclosed terms, brings online content and three book titles on wholesale vintage shopping and reselling into Marque’s portfolio, bolstering its offering to the trade.
The acquisition follows last year’s opening of Marque’s New York showroom and a joint venture with Fort Worth, Texas-based distributor M&M Merchandisers.
The 2020 moves have diversified Marque’s business, which is somewhat differentiated from other big-name resellers via its focus on catering to retailers with an inventory of pre-owned, authenticated luxury goods in addition to educational content on buying and reselling.
Four more U.S. showrooms, two fulfillment centers and an expansion in Asia are all slated for this year, according to founder and President Quentin Caruana.
Luxury reselling has been in vogue among direct-to-consumer, digital brands for several years now with some online sites capitalizing on investor interest in the model, such as San Francisco-based The RealReal Inc. (Nasdaq: REAL), with a recent market cap of $2.2 billion. Poshmark of Redwood City recently also confirmed it would move forward with an IPO that could raise nearly $260 million. Other big names in the industry that remain private include Oakland-based ThredUp Inc. and Tradesy of Santa Monica.
Marque’s growth strategy concentrates not only on digital platforms but also the showrooming model, akin to what many digital brands have employed in more recent years.
Its showrooms—in Irvine, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Atlanta and New York, along with international locations—are open to wholesale dealers. It’s also allowing members of what it calls its Marque Mentor program into the space to generate social media content and essentially help drum up potential reseller interest. The mentor program is a membership group for those new to reselling.
