Luxury wholesaler sees high demand for secondhand high-end bags

High-end fashion is a booming business for Marque Luxury, and its Las Vegas showroom — filled with goods from labels such as Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Fendi — has nearly tripled in size this month.

The Irvine, California-based wholesaler of secondhand luxury handbags and accessories moved into a 2,600-square-foot office space near the Las Vegas Convention Center, two years after expanding into Las Vegas with its first 900-square-foot showroom.

Quentin Caruana, co-founder and president of Marque, said the larger space signals rising consumer demand for secondhand goods as well as more tourists.

“With many of the trade shows that are now happening in Las Vegas, it’s the ideal time,” Caruana said. “We get a lot of people traveling to come and see our products that are coming to Vegas either for vacation or for business reasons. They’re coming to Vegas more often than before.”

The company is still settling into its new digs, but the plan is to have the LasVegas showroom help it capitalize on the rising appeal of pre-owned designer goods. A 2021 report by online resale company ThredUp estimates the secondhand market will double in five years to $77 billion, up from $36 billion in 2021.

And Caruana said the younger generation is fueling the shift — preferring the resale market because items cost less and have a lower environmental impact.

“There’s a bit of convergence of trends happening in terms of this product type,” he said. “Younger generations are really focusing on the pre-owned product rather than new because, of course, it’s not only more affordable it is also more sustainable.”

More space, more product

Marque, which launched in 2017, opened its Las Vegas showroom in 2020. The company operates 10 showrooms in the U.S.

Its designer handbags and accessories are sourced in the U.S. and abroad. The company, which owns the products, also authenticates each item before selling them to clients such as department stores, pawn shops, casinos and resort hotels as well as cruise ships and the U.S. military.

Caruana said buyers will either visit its showroom to purchase in-person or use the space as a studio for selling items directly to customers in real-time through social media platforms.

Marque plans to open 10 more showrooms this year, thanks to snagging $20 million in funding from private equity firm Provident Capital Partners. It also will look at expanding existing showrooms like it did in Las Vegas, Caruana said.

“Las Vegas is a perfect example,” he said. “Many clients who are coming to the showrooms, specifically in Las Vegas, are leveraging that showroom for doing live commerce — online selling.”

He said the new showroom will not only display more product but also be used as a space to train and educate online sellers. Caruana said the plan would be to send buyers to Las Vegas for training and once they’re finished, buyers would return home where they can sell to customers online using their newfound skills.

“It’s pretty cool,” Caruana said. “I wouldn’t have guessed years ago when I got into the business that we would be selling to the military, as an example, placing these items on military bases or working with different casinos or hotels, but the product is on trend. So because of that, it’s getting traction everywhere and we’re fortunate for that. We’re blessed.”

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.