How Fashionphile is finding success across retail channels

For luxury fashion resale company Fashionphile, the key to success is a strong omnichannel strategy that connects IRL retail, e-commerce, and social commerce in a way that attempts to meet customers where they are.

Fashionphile’s latest effort in this strategy was its New York City three-day pop-up, which took place in August and offered a curated assortment of handbags under $2,500, social media integrations, and a TikTok Shop livestream.

“We found that you’re not going to break through the competition by just out-advertising people with ads. So, what do you do?” said Fashionphile president and founder Sarah Davis. “People love an experience today. Ever since Covid, so much moved online and once people came out, that hasn’t ended. People love the in-store experience. We found that our fastest-growing segment of Fashionphile is our retail business.”

Pop-up success

Fashionphile saw immediate results from the pop-up. According to the company, nearly six figures worth of luxury inventory was moved during the TikTok Shop livestream. The activation generated 2 million social media impressions and 60,000 live viewings over three days. Daily livestream selling revenue jumped to over 54% from Friday to Saturday, with over 64% of livestream inventory sold through at an average item price of $1,000.

Fashionphile has increased its number of pop-ups and permanent locations over the years as the company has seen a growing appetite for IRL experiences and the convenience of buying and selling secondhand goods in person. Davis stated that many of Fashionphile’s customers prefer buying and selling in person, and working directly with a sales associate to get their feedback.

“If you really care about the customer, you have to offer the in-person experience,” she said.

According to Launchmetrics, Fashionphile’s NYC pop-up generated $137,000 in media impact value, the company’s metric that ties a monetary amount to social media engagement.

“Fashionphile’s SoHo pop-up is a good example of how resale has moved from the margins into the center of the luxury conversation,” said Alison Bringé, CMO at Launchmetrics in a statement. “What’s interesting is that the brand’s momentum this year hasn’t come from traditional advertising, it’s been built by creators and talent…who talk about pre-owned luxury the way their audiences actually shop it. And the physical pop-up gave that digital community somewhere to show up.”

Fueling a larger strategy

Fashionphile’s pop-up is just one part of its larger growth strategy. While retail is the fastest-growing segment of the business, Fashionphile has experienced success with using TikTok Shop as a revenue driver, with the luxury resale site regularly hosting livestreams and integrating them into pop-ups.

Davis explained it’s important to have a robust retail strategy that meets the customer where they are and makes it easy for them to engage with Fashionphile through multiple channels.

“At Fashionphile, we call them circular customers,” she said. “They’re buying and selling and selling and buying, and then they’re just in all the different channels. It almost would feel limiting if we weren’t available in that one avenue.”

She thinks Fashionphile’s TikTok Shop initiatives have resonated with customers because they offer the same personalized IRL experience that a customer would get in store. This is especially meaningful to customers who don’t live near a Fashionphile location.

“One of the reasons that TikTok Shop works so well is because if the online experience is not personal enough for you, and you wish you could shop in a retail store and you could talk to our sales associate and get the confidence you need to make that purchase, but you live in Birmingham, Alabama, TikTok Shop kind of scratches that itch,” she said.