Designer handbags have extended been deemed “the financial investment piece” for your closet. And whilst this notion could possibly only be justification for dropping countless numbers of pounds on a purse, these luxury pieces can be a prudent financial commitment. As types circle again around and classic and resale marketplaces have taken off in the latest yrs, maintaining a few basic designer luggage in your collection is not such a lousy point.
No 1 is aware of this more than Kristen Donnell, who owns Keeks Designer Purses, a luxury designer handbag resale store in Plano. Donnell claims “pre-owned retail is in my blood.” When she was a toddler, her weekends were being invested at a Garland flea current market where by her dad, Mark Edward Kane, bought utilised CDs. She experienced a entrance row seat as he grew his enterprise from the flea market place booth into CD Warehouse and released other concepts, like Film Investing Company.
Seeking to cultivate something of her own as an adult, with a product or service line that would appeal to gals, Donnell made a decision to concentration on handbags. She launched her resale store in 2010. “We deeply feel that everybody deserves luxury, and [we] wished to create a exciting, far more attainable way to get it,” Donnell suggests.
And her expense in the label has paid off. Donnell suggests a string of “little bets” considering that opening 12 decades in the past has aided her develop Keeks (her nickname) into a 10,000-sq.-foot flagship keep in Plano.
Kristen Donnell and her husband, Robert.
Keeks Designer Handbags
She to start with begun advertising pre-owned purses in a compact Collin Creek Shopping mall retail outlet in 2010. At the time, she carried predominantly decreased-conclude designers. But her shoppers have been drawn to her additional luxurious choices. The to start with purse she bought was the only Louis Vuitton Speedy she experienced in-inventory. Donnell now sees that as a foreshadowing for her latest wares.
“The organization plodded together right until we resolved to make a ‘little bet’ and invest in a major amount of money of pre-owned Louis Vuitton to consider to market,” Donnell claims. “We have been shocked when it flew off the cabinets. That was when we figured out that bigger-finish luxury was the way ahead.”
Donnell now sells luxe purses, shoes, and equipment. Her 4,000-hangbag inventory consists of pieces from some of fashion’s most exclusive—and expensive—designers, like Hermes, Givenchy, Prada, Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, natch, and much more, at a discounted rate.
That price cut is, most likely, the most apparent reward of getting utilized pieces. But other, often missed added benefits contain sustainability—buying an aged bag retains it out of a landfill—and acquiring unusual, discontinued things, Donnell suggests.
“Another advantage to buying resale is that we have hundreds of pieces that are no more time in manufacturing,” Donnell says. “We recently created a buyer so content because she had been dreaming about the discontinued Louis Vuitton Sully and we experienced it.”
Donnell often functions to link shoppers with a discontinued bag or accessory they’ve been coveting but can not locate. Correct now, some of her hottest products include things like quite a few Chanel Grand Purchasing Totes, which have been discontinued in 2015. But her rarest items at the moment in-stock contain an Hermes Kelly 35, an ostrich Prada Galleria, and numerous discontinued distinctive-edition Louis Vuitton prints.
Keeks’ company model operates on the thought of supplying designer fashion with out the designer perspective. Donnell needs her buyers to have a special practical experience and not that Rather Female Rodeo Drive moment, exactly where they truly feel intimidated or are turned absent, when purchasing at Keeks. Although the items are technically 2nd-hand, Donnell wishes her consumers to feel celebrated with the financial investment they are creating. As quite a few purchases are accompanied by a main lifestyle instant or milestone, like graduations or birthdays, she commemorates specified invest in stages with a bottle of champagne for shoppers.
Courtesy of Keeks Designer Purses
Whilst the bulk of Keeks’ business enterprise comes from in-retail outlet obtaining, Donnell saw a important turning issue in 2020. Like several other retail models, Keeks improved its e-commerce and social media efforts all through the pandemic. They labored really hard to enhance the on the net browsing encounter, Donnell states. “Now I’d say we have a brick-and-simply click design.”
Online purchases now make up 33 percent of her product sales, Donnell states. She has shoppers from all over the entire world, and she’s even had out-of-towners check out her Plano retail outlet in individual from as considerably absent as New York Town.
Donnell has massive designs for the potential of Keeks Designer Purses, which includes another massive box spot exterior of Plano and aggressively expanding her luxury shoe and accessory collections. But like her father’s ventures rising up, her business is continue to a household affair. Each her father and her husband, Robert, work with Donnell at the retail store, which she claims is the best section.
“It isn’t always straightforward, but at the stop of the day, functioning difficult for a typical objective is normally worth it,” Donnell states. “Together we have designed anything that we are incredibly proud of and we have the most effective crew.”
And she gets to drool around beautiful designer luggage for a dwelling.
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