eBay Couture

The great recession is really mixing things up for luxury-apparel retailer Stanley Korshak, which has taken to selling its excess inventory, quietly, on eBay, reports Ray A. Smith in the Wall Street Journal (4/23/09). Korshak made a name for itself by sending its sales associates "to customers’ homes for wardrobe consultations and closet evaluations." But these days, the retailer apparently is spending more time auctioning off what it cannot sell in the arguably downscale environs of the internet.

This isn’t sitting too well with some of its designers, obviously. "Because eBay is such a big and vast selling site, the product would not be presented in a high-end luxury manner acceptable to the brands that have worked so hard to create their image," admits Crawford Brock, who owns Stanley Korshak. While labels are used to seeing "some discounting in stores, as well as resales to T.J. Maxx and the like," they aren’t real thrilled to let shoppers set prices. "In the retail world, that is just a no-no," says Robert Burke, a luxury goods consultant. Well, welcome to the real world.

Truth be told, Crawford, himself, is somewhat ambivalent about it all, using the screen name takeitawayluxury to hide that his store is behind the eBay auctions. Curiously, his eBay customers receive their purchases "tissued and neatly packaged in one of the retailer’s signature gift boxes." He did momentarily reveal his true identity with a tagline directing bidders to check out "our regular priced merchandise at www.stanleykorshak.com" but soon thought the better of it. "We may turn it back on, but right now it’s off," says Crawford, who is also ramping up email blasts for Korshak as well as its own e-commerce site.