Everyday she stares into her wardrobes full of clothes, and sighs: “I have nothing to wear today; must go shopping.”
He: “But there isn’t space for new clothes as your wardrobes are overflowing!
From this wardrobe fatigue, mainly among women, in many urban households, emerged Aboli Salvi’s new startup, ShareWardrobe, in May 2015 as a premium marketplace for women’s expensive and niche fashion and accessories that have remained underutilised. “For a number of reasons, our wardrobes can be stuffed with items we no longer need, like or fit into. But we don’t want to dispose them off either,” she told BusinessLine .
All one can do is either to donate these ‘pre-loved’ clothes and accessories, or to resale them out. ShareWardrobe does both, on behalf of the owner, by providing an online platform.
However, it is not the OLX of old clothes or accessories, she says. “We don’t sell every cloth or accessory. We put on our platform only the top and authentic brands, and boutique-made items and Indianwear after stringent quality control. And we accept the pre-owned items only under categories like clothes, bags, shoes or accessories that are clean and in good condition.”
ShareWardrobe, where women can buy and sell pre-owned stuff, has also put on its website the brands it does not accept, nor does it accept replicas, fakes or locally-tailored/manufactured clothes and other items, Salvi said, adding only flawless, almost new items are sold on this platform.
Once the reseller woman fills up an online form and request for a free pick-up of the items intended for sale, ShareWardrobe gets it shipped and passes them through a thorough quality check, before listing it for sale on its website, initially for 90 days. “The seller decides the selling price under our guidelines. We get a 15-30% commission on these sales,” Salvi said.
The average price of an item sold on ShareWardrobe is almost 50% of its original price. Once the item gets sold, ShareWardrobe transfers 70% of the sale amount to the reseller’s account within seven days of buyer confirmation.
What happens to the items that remain unsold, or are returned? She pointed out that ShareWardrobe then advises the seller to reduce the price. “Alternately, if she agrees, we either return it to her or donate the items to an NGO on her behalf.”
Selling and buying second-hand clothing was an unknown territory in the Indian e-commerce space until ShareWardrobe stepped in, when Aboli Salvi, a technology consultant, decided to call it a day at Deloitte to found the new online marketplace. Earlier, she had helped lead the implementation of the US’s successful Obamacare Health Insurance Exchange (HIX).
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