Branded clothes did not fit in the closet, he created a place to help others sell and already has 1.5 M customers

From organizing a fair to sell their clothes to creating a community of more than 1.5 million users who buy and sell clothes. The story of Cecilia Membrado, founder of Renová Tu Vestidor , represents everything that is the entrepreneurial spirit.

She has a degree in Business Administration from the University of San Andrés, since she obtained her degree she has developed in the world of fashion, in areas of planning and regional expansion, in companies such as Nike, Vitamina, Rapsodia and Falabella . In addition, she also went through MercadoLibre , where she worked on the launch of MercadoLibre Moda.

"Inside me I always knew that one day I was going to be an entrepreneur. I was always very restless, needing new challenges and, above all, looking for innovative solutions that simplify either processes or people's lives," she mentions Membrado.

Renew Your Dressing Room, the platform that she founded in 2014 where four garments are published per minute, was born from a personal need. After many years of working in fashion brands, when she got married, Membrado found herself with a happy problem: the dressing room in her two-room apartment was not enough for their clothes . So she Membrado decided to set up a fair under the concept of selling at good prices what she did not use, branded and in very good condition.

That fair was not only a success in sales, but it also served as a trigger since many women who bought also began to give her her clothes to sell. "I realized there was an opportunity to do something big," she says.

To prove that the model was viable, she began by taking clothes on consignment and selling them in an e-commerce store. "Later, we learned that in order to scale we needed to change the model. It was there that we decided to launch the Social Marketplace that we are today ," says the entrepreneur, explaining that they have now become a platform with a strong focus on social-commerce, where women open her dressing room to share her tastes for fashion and at the same time earn extra money by circulating the clothes that (although they are in perfect condition) she no longer wears.

"In this way, we all win: we generate extra income, buyers buy leading brands at an affordable price and we help the planet by avoiding pollution with overproduction of clothing. We make fast fashion sustainable ", mentions the founder who has as partners, in addition , to the brothers Ignacio and Gonzalo Basaldúa.

Today the platform has users who sell sporadically and others who find a fixed income on it every month. In fact, the entrepreneur assures that a user last year generated $ 4 million in sales. On the other hand, designer brands also have their place. Within the "showrooms" there are independent designers who make their label known and generate sales within this community that has more than 5 million monthly visits. Sellers can post for free, and Renová Tu Vestidor charges a sales commission of 20.66 percent + VAT.

The platform operates in Argentina, Chile and Colombia and the founder is ambitious for the future: "While fast fashion grows at 20 percent per year, secondhand grows at 185 percent. More and more retailers and brands that are joining this trend of conscious consumption that is here to stay and from our place we want to lead it in Latin America".

In figures

The original version of this note was published in number 332 of Apertura magazine.