Rebag introduces single-transaction swaps with Clair Trade

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jul 17, 2021

Rebag, the digital-first resale platform for designer handbags and accessories, has announced the launch of Clair Trade, an instant trade-in program allowing customers to buy and sell pieces in one transaction.

 
The program uses Rebag’s propriety Clair AI technology, developed using seven years of data and millions of image references, to give users of the resale specialist’s online platform an immediate valuation for items that they want to sell. This value can then be used by the customer to purchase other pieces on the platform, effectively trading one item for another.
 
Should the user wish to buy an item that is more expensive than the value they are quoted for their sale, they only pay the difference between the two pieces.

Once this transaction is complete, the customer sends the piece they are trading in to Rebag for verification. Once the item in question has been verified, the trade-in will be confirmed, or possibly edited, and the customer’s purchase dispatched.
 
By allowing shoppers to use the value of their trade-ins to pay for purchases immediately, the system accelerates the standard processes employed by resale platforms, which often require sellers to await verification before they are paid, by which time the item they were hoping to purchase with the money from their sale may no longer be available.
 
Customers can also take advantage of the Clair Trade program at Rebag’s brick-and-mortar stores in New York, Los Angeles or Miami, where they can complete the whole process immediately.
 
“Clair Trade brings together our seven years of expertise as a leading luxury resale destination. It combines the immediacy of our pricing technology and our AI-recognition capabilities to create a unique and transformative resale experience,” said Rebag founder and CEO Charles Gorra in a release.
 
“For the first time in the resale industry, consumers will be able to generate a quote and immediately use it towards another purchase, while only paying the difference. The more you sell, the more you decrease the cart value and can shop guilt-free,” added the executive. “With Clair Trade, Rebag is essentially pioneering negative checkout.”
 
Founded in New York in 2014, Rebag is one of a number of digital-first platforms tapping into the growing popularity of fashion resale, including ThredUp, Poshmark and The RealReal. The sector has proved resilient in the face of the challenges of Covid-19, with a recent study from ThredUp predicting that the U.S. apparel resale market could be worth $77 billion by 2026. Both ThredUp and Poshmark filed for IPOs earlier this year.