Chinese second-hand fashion e-commerce player raises $20m

Existing investors Matrix Partners China, Qiming Ventures and Unity Ventures re-upped.

Founded in 2017, Plus claims to have seen a fivefold increase in gross merchandise volume (GMV) over the past six months. The company pursues a C2B2C model, collecting items from individual sellers, authenticating them, and then selling the goods through its platform. It takes a commission on each transaction. Anyone who purchases an item that turns out to be fake receives compensation amounting to three times the sum paid.

Wei Xu, CEO of Plum, said in a statement that sellers on the platform not only want good prices for their items but also quick sales, often to fund new purchases. Around 40% of sellers on Plum are buyers as well. The company claims that 80% of items are sold within 30 days but it wants to shorten the sale cycle to 48 hours or even 24 hours.

To realize this goal, Plum will launch a live broadcast channel, copying the strategy employed by social e-commerce platforms. This means the validation and marketing processes will happen simultaneously, offering prospective buyers a more comprehensive view of an item’s condition and functions.

Other companies in the second-hand luxury goods space include Xinshang, which received a $50 million Series C round last year. It operates under a B2B2C model, connecting small-scale offline retailers with end-buyers. Plum cuts out these intermediaries by reaching out to end-consumers directly, but it also faces the challenge of negotiating a price for each item with an individual seller.  

According to a Mckinsey & Company report, Chinese consumers spent RMB770 billion ($108 billion) on luxury items in 2018, equivalent to a third of the global spend. The report also expects the spend to be RMB1.23 trillion in 2025, representing 40% of global spend with an annual growth rate of 6%.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• Matrix Partners
• Qiming Venture Partners
• TMT