Next time you’re looking for some brand new designer merchandise, you should go on eBay. On Tuesday, the e-commerce giant launched Designer Collective, a new collection of online shops featuring 16 American designers, including Calvin Klein, Nicole Miller, Rebecca Minkoff, Elie Tahari and Cynthia Rowley. These designers run and own their shops on eBay, selling their current-season merchandise at full price. Ebay does not own any inventory.
“The larger brands see this as an extension of their digital footprint,” Marcelle Parrish, eBay’s head of fashion, told Women’s Wear Daily.
Being on Ebay allows brands to present and sell their goods on a larger platform, to more people (145 million active users worldwide according Ebay’s Q1 2014 report) than they might reach on their own or through e-commerce sites like Net-A-Porter.
Designer Collective also plans to have fashionistas and bloggers contribute style stories and editorial content to the site later in the year. For now it’s US-only, but international shipping will roll out also later this year.