Name: Hello La ModeQuick Pitch: A place to buy and sell designer goods.
Genius Idea: A third party verifies the authenticity of purchases before payments are transferred.
The auction site has made general efforts to prevent the selling of counterfeit goods namely, by agreeing to take down items at the request of brand owners, or that users report to be suspicious.
Despite those sanctions, shoppers still must rely largely on their own knowledge of a product the brand of a zipper, the shape of a buckle to determine if an item theyre looking at is the real thing.
But the thing is, while Microsoft and its Windows franchise have in many ways over the years become sort of like the AOL of the computer hardware and software world—the legacy brand your great aunt still uses and that seems like its constantly struggling to keep pace with the cool kids—Office remains the best product of its kind.
Hello La Mode, which launched publicly Wednesday, is out to provide a better solution.
Heres how it works: Sellers create listings and, once theyve found a buyer, ship their item to the company to verify its authenticity and condition.
The company does encourage unhappy buyers to relist their items on the site and will assume the cost of the transaction fee.
If it passes the check, the seller is paid and the item is shipped to the buyer.
A spokesperson for Hello La Mode says it has in house experts who have worked in upscale consignment shops and the studios of top designers.
Those experts examine an item for signature markings and construction to determine if its a fake.
EBay takes only a 9% cut of items sold on its site; Hello La Mode charges more, on a sliding scale:Less than $100:.
Stefanie O'Neill is a fashion journalist based in Hong Kong, China. Stefanie has a passion for fashion stories and loves writing about fashion news and fashion opinions that matters most to its audience. Stefanie spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest fashion industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on Stylerchic.com.
