Managed marketplace Rehaus has launched with the promise of making easier to buy and sell secondhand designer furniture online. Rehaus reports fast growth since its soft launch in August 2021, with many using the platform to resell their furniture for the first time and 18% returning to sell again.
Rehaus promises to remove the hassle factor of used furniture online – and makes it easy for buyers to see the provenance of a piece, communicate directly and get items delivered as quickly as next-day, while sellers can have their items collected and stored before being sold online.
The site has £500,000 in pre-seed investment from investors with experience of marketplaces, including Sach Kukadia, who co-founded Secret Sales as a members-only shopping business and is now chairman of Rehaus, and Chris Evans and Tom Weaver, who co-founded hospitality solutions business Flyt, subsequently bought by food delivery marketplace JustEat.
Rehaus was founded by interiors and design specialist Daphne Vassiliades with Tom Allason – who founded Shutl before moving on to eBay, and ecommerce veteran Will Cochrane.
Daphne Vassiliades, co-founder of Rehaus, says: “We have opened the doors to a highly valuable segment of the pre-owned furniture market and done this by making all aspects of buying and selling easy.
“Sellers value their designer items, wanting them collected, looked after and sold for a good price with minimal cost and hassle, whilst buyers want authentic, quality pieces delivered when they want them. Until now this was not possible.”
Rehaus cites Research and Markets’s Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030 research suggesting that the luxury resale second-hand market is growing fast at a time when shoppers are buying in a more eco-conscious way. It predicts that $16.6billion of second-hand furniture could be resold by 2025 – 70% more than in 2018 and says that concerns about the environmental impact of fast furniture are increasingly driving consumer buying decisions. Shoppers are responding, it says, with growing interest in furniture that will hold or increase its value.
