The global luxury goods industry is beating its own records year after year to post a value of nearly €1,400 billion in 2022, which represents an increase of 13%.
Thus, the resale platforms for luxury products have accelerated since 2017 and mainly in the second hand sector, which is booming; and these platforms are exclusively positioned on transactional with the sole objective of making Deals; sometimes in fast fashion, in fashion, in Luxury or even a mix of that – but unfortunately with these platforms displaying thousands of images if not millions which are indigestible and with a very important risk of counterfeiting of the products offered. Additionally, consumers starts to be anonymous, without any sense of belonging and sometimes confronted with a non-existent or purely AI-based customer service.
THE ONES is a closed community of authentic luxury enthusiasts who interact together and share a taste for the “Entre-soi”.
THE ONES is the story of a couple of luxury lovers, Gaëlle & Steeve FICHTENBAUM, who, like many others, are disappointed by the decline in the quality of service in luxury houses and on digital platforms, and who want to give meaning to the statement: ‘The customer is king’.
A lawyer by training, Gaëlle has always had a real passion for luxury products, with a particular penchant for jewelry; how could she not be fascinated by precious stones, the precision of the jeweler’s work and the history of the great houses.
Over time, Gaëlle has noticed a gradual shift in the level of service provided by luxury brand boutiques. The personalized welcome and sharing of brand history and anecdotes that were once commonplace have unfortunately become less common. Nowadays, appointments must be carefully planned in advance or customers may have to wait in a queue to enter. Even after gaining access, the experience can be underwhelming, with customers often waiting for an available salesperson and frequently finding that the desired item is unavailable. Mrs. Gaëlle Fichtenbaum, founder of The Ones, has expressed her disappointment with this trend.
For some, this similar product will be a compensation but for others it will not and on the contrary, all that will remain is the feeling of not having spent a privileged moment.
Again, she sought the pleasure of luxury in the resale platforms of second-hand luxury products.
These platforms offer a lot of images, mixing fashion and luxury products, which requires a lot of questions in order to be sure of the condition and provenance of the object.
The buying process is, therefore, once again very far from desire, pleasure and spontaneity. Indeed, you have to wait for the seller to answer your questions and therefore depend on his reactivity = Is that what LUXURY is today?
Naturally, she talked to her husband, who is an entrepreneur and investor, and that’s how the idea of giving meaning back to the word “luxury” and putting the consumer back at the centre of the experience was born!
They shared the idea with their friend Thomas Mondo, a strategic planner and luxury specialist, and they matured their thoughts to finally create the first DELUXE community and transactional network: THE ONES.
THE ONES is first and foremost a family adventure headed by a couple who have been married for 20 years.
Gaëlle is a lawyer by training and began her career in mergers and acquisitions before joining the trading floor of the largest French banks as a specialist in structured finance, commodities and securitization for 17 years.
At the same time, Gaëlle is an observer of consumer trends in the world of luxury and fashion, with a passion for the digitalization of this universe (social media, influence…).
Steeve started his career as a sales trader in interest rate products and then in equities before joining an international IT group to develop financial consulting (excluded IT).
At the end of 2006, he created a first consulting company with his partner and then developed others under the name “CMG Consulting Group”; the Group is present in France and Portugal.
He sold the Group in June 2022.
In 2013, Steeve decided to invest in start-ups and became very interested in this ecosystem.
With his partner, he created a fund called “ESEM Holding” to develop “smart-capital” and to support start-up managers in their development.
Steeve has invested in over 25 companies and is a board member.
To carry out this project THE ONES; Gaëlle and Steeve decided to surround themselves very early on with specialists to work as well as possible on the development of the APP, the brand strategy, the marketing and the actions with retailers and major luxury houses.
They are also in advanced discussions with “luxury micro-influencers” to support them on traction; the community of members.
Initially, luxury product resale platforms mainly oriented their model towards “second hand” and decided to have a very open positioning; that is to say, to associate fashion and fast fashion brands with luxury; the word luxury, therefore, lost all its meaning, especially in the eyes of luxury product lovers.
Some of these platforms have finally decided to gradually move towards luxury brands with marketing campaigns, turning their backs on the fashion and fast fashion brands that were their main model at the start.
Why? Is it not profitable to do fashion or fast fashion? Is there an ethical problem with respect for the environment?
Then, from a “massive market,” some platforms decided to specialize and offer consumers only watches, jewelry or bags; other LUXTECH companies also offer brands to take care of all the logistics for the second hand.
This bulimia of images of products to be resold on the second-hand market in a few clicks, naturally opens up the subject of counterfeiting, misleading information, claims by the thousands… how to authenticate so many products? How can you be sure that the seller is in good faith? How can you be confident on platforms where access is free and anonymous? What about customer service, which is often entrusted to chatbots, and how can we trust customer service in the event of a problem?
Bernard Arcand (Canadian anthropologist) quoted: “The human being has no quality standard, except for his need to belong”; it is this need to belong, to belong to a community that we want to develop by being the 1st transactional and community DELUXE network reserved for LUXURY lovers.
We are creating a space for luxury lovers, with an annual subscription, a sponsorship system and a questionnaire… As a matter of fact, THE ONES encapsulates the biggest and the most consistent trend in the Luxury universe in the last 10 months: the rise of ‘The Quiet Luxury’ philosophy… A vision of Luxury much more understated, much more Entre-Soi and less logo and show off’s centric.” – Steeve FICHTENBAUM.
For many years now, the tools for financing start-ups have been well-developed.
Crowdfunding, tax benefits, grants, interest-free loans and public loans, business angels, family offices and investment funds are all mechanisms that enable a start-up to raise money at any stage of its development.
The positive point is that these mechanisms exist, that they are known through the various media channels and that they encourage the promotion of new ideas and projects.
The disadvantages are many:
– Encouraging anyone to launch a project when it is not yet mature; investors thus receive a greater volume of applications for financing for which some are not really ready
– At the launch of the company (pre-seed and seed rounds), the manager can use all these financing channels and sometimes end up bringing in many “small” inactive shareholders into the company; this adds to the capitalization table, which can be a hindrance later on
– Have the reflex to build a business model on successive fundraisings; a company must be able to finance itself; to generate profits; the fundraising must allow the model to be accelerated.
“In a dynamic market, not standing out is tantamount to being invisible”, quoted Seth GODIN, author and former business executive.
THE ONES is an application that assumes its Exclusive philosophy…
THE ONES is an experience that can be lived in 3 acts:
– Reluxe, or the idea of educating oneself on Luxury to become true ‘connoisseurs’ (Act I)
– Resale, or the idea of creating C2C and B2C transactional relationships in complete confidence (Act II)
– Reconnect, or the idea of creating a social network for luxury lovers only (Act III)
Our ambition is to give back confidence to consumers who love luxury and who do not find themselves in the current proposals, to create a community that respects codes and values and that will take pleasure in exchanging and meeting during exclusive events.
Even if the authentication of products will always be possible, the challenge is that within the community, members can identify with each other and thus act in complete confidence.
We combine the marketplace and the luxury social network by offering additional services, which is unique!
We move the cursor from transaction & authentication to member selection.
Being a member of THE ONES means having access to exclusive news on luxury, additional services (concierge, personal shopping, insurance, repairs…), a social network of luxury lovers to exchange, comment and share good addresses; it also means being able to carry out C2C or B2C transactions (THE ONES partners) in total confidence – and all this on the same APP.
THE ONES wants to reinject Exceptional into the value proposition of Luxury.
THE ONES, Quality over Quantity.
To join THE ONES community, you can visit theones.club, and you will be informed about our upcoming opening.