Kelsey Lutz, the Chief Operating Officer of Luxury Garage Sale, was this week’s guest on the DPELC-MSL Speaker Series, where she talked to MSL students about her transition from investment banking to upscale online retail. Throughout the years, Luxury Garage Sale has stood out for being a carefully curated high-fashion consignment boutique. The company began with a series of pop-ups before dominating the online space but, despite their success on the web, they have made it a point to expand their business offline as well. The company has five different locations spread among Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis and Seattle and has plans for more pop-ups in other cities. How did Luxury Garage Sale approach brick-and-mortars in a world where online is king? Kelsey gave some strategies:
1) Understand who your customer is: When they were first starting out, Luxury Garage Sale relied too much on personal stylists and store teams for insights on their customers. Last year, they did a consumer study and realized that their customer was someone different than they had imagined. For example, they were under the assumption that their customer was an edgy fashionista when in reality their base skewed older and was more interested in investing in great pieces at a good value.
2) Focus on building a community: The company uses their pop-ups to not only attract potential customers but also to find potential sellers and consigners. When it comes to technology, they’ve been selective about investing in platforms that can help them track customers through different checkpoints, so they can also become savvy about what it is that individual wants.
3) Be very careful about selecting a location: Kelsey explained that foot traffic was really important for their business. Therefore, when they set up shop in a city, they strategically decide where that shop should be by looking at places that are in affordable cities with lots of expendable cash, where they already have an online client base. They also seek out neighborhoods that provide a lot of foot traffic and attract other consignment stores.
