From closing department stores to bankruptcy-ridden boutiques, the shopping space has been looking pretty grim lately, but one particular pocket in the market has been floating along quite nicely: off-price retail, including places like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, and Nordstrom Rack.
The idea for Cara Cara came to founder Rachel Gannon around January 2019 while she was in charge of e-commerce, merchandise, and buying at Ban.do. Her years of fashion experience, which also include buying stints at flash sales site Rue La La and the executive development program at Macy's, made her realize an industry-wide problem: excess inventory. Although sample sales can resolve this issue for most businesses, the customer reach is very much limited to where that sale takes place.
"The other option is to liquidate to a T.J. Maxx or Nordstrom Rack, but those don't always fit right with the brands," Gannon tells NYLON."A lot of brands feel like it ruins the brand integrity that they've worked so hard to build." Plus, she notes that a major retailer like, say, T.J. Maxx would need to buy thousands of units to put on its sales floors, which is nearly impossible for smaller brands that may only have 30 or 100 items in stock.
The online store officially launched in September 2019 with five brands: Rachel Antonoff, Samantha Pleet, Dusen Dusen, Charlotte Stone, and Baggu. Nearly six months later, Cara Cara boasts 15 brands, including home items by Copenhagen-based HAY, Crap Eyewear, jewelry from SOKO, and select denim styles from Levi's. Each item is re-shot and given a new life, all while discounted from its original retail price by 30 to 70 percent.
"Since we are building partnerships with these brands, we're not just carrying their stuff for three months and then not," says Gannon."We're building a long-term partnership so that we can be their exit strategy for these goods. They really want us to succeed so we can continue to grow. Then, hopefully as we grow, we can sell more of their inventory. A lot of the brands have been pushing their customers back to us. They're really into what we're doing.
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