TripIt Founders Launch Chairish, A Consignment Marketplace To Sell Pre-Owned Home Furniture

After selling travel itinerary startup TripIt to Concur for $120 million, the startup’s co-founders, Gregg Brockway and his team are launching their newest venture—Chairish. Chairish is an online consignment marketplace for people to buy and sell pre-owned home furnishings.

The idea came out of a pain point Brockway and his wife, Anna, found when moving into a new home, The couple explained that they had extra furniture, which was high quality and wasn’t damaged, that needed a new home. You can take these pieces to a consignment shop, but that can be a pain.

With Chairish, buyers get access to a curated selection of high quality, designer home décor of all types and styles, from “like new” to those with that are slightly damaged, but could be refurbished. All Chairish listings are pre-owned pieces straight from the owner. Buyers also have a 48-hour return policy.

Sellers can upload and sell in two ways. The standard service allows sellers to upload a photo of the piece and its share the story behind the furniture. Chairish curators will approve the listing and post on the site. Sellers get 80 percent of the total sale. Chairish will arrange pick-up, and delivery to the buyer.

The company’s concierge service, which is only available in San Francisco for now, allows for a Chairish representative to come to your home, inspect your furnishings, write the listing, and move the pieces into secure storage, with professional photographs. Chairish manages payment, and shipping logistics but will take a 40 percent commission on the sale.

Besides the Brockways, Chairish was also founded by TripIt team members Andy Denmark, Eric Grosse, and Nancy Ramamurthi.

The consignment business as a marketplace has been applied across other verticals, including fashion. Whether Chairish will be able to create a valuable business will depend on how easy they make it to actually list and ship products, especially considering the products being transacted are mostly large and cumbersome (as opposed to a handbag or article of clothing).

via TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/27/tripit-founders-launch-chairish-a-consignment-marketplace-to-sell-pre-owned-home-furniture/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29