Luxury resale platform Rebag will now allow for “instant” trade-ins.
Five months after launching its instant pricing engine Clair AI—likened to “a Shazam for handbags” by founder and CEO Charles Gorra—the company is giving consumers the ability to “seamlessly” sell and buy totes, satchels and more.
Launched Thursday, Clair Trade lets shoppers receive an offer for their luxury items, instantly put that value toward a new purchase and then check out and only pay the difference. In addition to simplifying the customer experience, Rebag said the system will allow shoppers—depending on their state’s laws regarding taxes on trade-in values—to experience tax savings on the overall transaction.
For a limited time, Rebag is also offering its sellers a 25 percent premium when they choose to trade in rather than seek a standalone cash payout.
“The more you sell, the more you decrease the cart value and can shop guilt-free,” Gorra said in a statement. “With Clair Trade, Rebag is essentially pioneering negative checkout.”
Rebag will offer the service online and at its stores in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles. Those who shop in-person will be able to complete the process immediately. Those who use the online service, meanwhile, will have to either ship their items to Rebag using a free shipping label or drop the items off at a store location. Once they have been reviewed, the resale platform will either confirm or edit the trade-in value and then ship the purchased items. Clair Trade will cover all Rebag’s categories.
In February, the New York-based company launched Clair AI. The artificial intelligence-powered service allows shoppers and sellers to photograph a handbag and instantly discover its make, model and market value. According to Rebag, it can recognize and price bags from the world’s top 50 luxury brands, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Christian Dior.
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Clair AI is built on the foundation of Rebag’s proprietary Clair—Comprehensive Luxury Appraisal Index for Resale—database. The index covers more than 15,000 styles and includes handbags, as well as accessories, watches and jewelry.
Rebag is among several services facilitating luxury handbag trade-ins. After piloting a program in Europe in 2019, Farfetch expanded its Second Life resale program to the United States in November. The service, also limited exclusively to luxury handbags, requires consumers to submit information and photographs of their items and then wait up to two business days to receive an offer. Once the item is officially received and verified, Farfetch credits the account with the offered value. The platform currently accepts bags from 33 brands.