Today we’d like to introduce you to John Cormier.
John, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The Company was born via unnerving experience by one of the founders, WatchFacts (“WF” or the “Company”) was inspired on a concept that online trading of luxury products should be a safe and transparent experience where consumers should be mindful of the facts. Sellers should be accountable for what they are representing, buyers should have the peace of mind knowing what they are buying and the transaction should take place in a safe environment. The new luxury industry is estimated to be about $290Bn in annual sales with products sold online, in boutique stores and at trade shows. Every new luxu-ry item becomes pre-owned the minute it leaves the facility of an authorized distributor making the pre-owned market, in theory, multiple times larger than the new market. However, the pre-owned market is estimated to be about $46Bn but we think it’s about between $500 to 750 Bn. The primary reason for its relatively smaller size is due to transaction friction relating to lack of trust and transparency.Today, online trade is dominated by un-audited, free-wheeling dealers result-ing in an abundance of fake and cloned items that enter the market each year. Compounding the problem is a general lack of domain expertise by major platforms in the luxury pre-owned space preventing many players to enter the pre-owned market. Finally, lack of online transparency, quality standards, evaluation criteria, warranty and resources make it diffi cult for consumers to make eff ective pre-owned purchase decisions, particularly online.1
The key is creating disruptive technology and tools that will provide liquid-ity for pre-loved goods to trade in a safe and trusted environment with a dedicated group of buyers/market makers like stock traders supporting the secondarymarket. To create liquidity, that is bigger and more tangible than bitcoin, we are creating a luxury currency, e.g., “luxecoin”. Monetizing the data on pricing, we will now have the ability to create an effi cient and transparent market for trading goods, both new and pre-owned, with provenance. We have partnered with a company in Italy to develop image recognition using our database to incorporate into block-chain system which tracks ownership, condition, pricing, service, etc. Thereby allowing future owners to enter and exit any luxury good at a “market price.”
Has it been a smooth road?
Working with the largest platforms in the world is always a challenge. It requires recruiting and retaining resources capable of delivering on their requests. Expanding with them globally presents a new set of challenges ranging from technology integration, cultural differences, and mobilizing operations.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the WatchFacts story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a tech company focused on the secondary market for luxury products. Our goal is to create “certified trust” via a more transparency and trust in the online process achieved by conversion tools for consumers, sellers and platforms. We do this via market-based pricing, so people know the real-time/market price of an item… like the stock market of luxury. 2) inspection & certification reports as seen on Amazon.com and eBay 3) warranty, inspections, and repair.
Today, we are in watches; however, we are expanding to jewelry and other high-value items with a viable secondary market.
We are most proud of our partnership with Amazon. We worked with them to get them into pre-owned luxury.
What makes us different from everyone is we are completely independent. We don’t buy or sell. This allows us to be completely unbiased regardless of confirming authenticity or price.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The industry is in a big flux. The brands are only focused on producing new products and don’t care about pre-owned or protection of their brand in the secondary market. We feel the “brand value” can be monetized by creating liquidity for people who want to exit the item and trade up to something else. Our program creates a trusted experience for that to happen. We are using blockchain and machine learning to create more structure to make this happen. Data, transparency, and liquidity will be the keys to transforming the luxury space
Contact Info:
- Address: 169 E Flagler
Miami, FL 33131 - Website: www.watchfacts.com
- Phone: 888.587.2928
- Email: info@watchfacts.com
- Instagram: watchfacts
- Facebook: watchfacts
- Twitter: watchfacts
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