CoutLoot acquires Bangalore-based peer 'Once Again Store'

India's leading end-to-end fashion re-commerce platform CoutLoot has announced the acquisition of its Bangalore-based peer Once Again Store.

Being one of the first startups in the country to have started fashion re-selling back in 2015, all the products listed on Once Again Store will now appear on the CoutLoot app, further enriching the shopping experience through the consolidated entity.

Founded by Umang Chordia and Nikita Agarwal, Once Again Store was built around the concept that one should never have to wear the same outfit twice.

Their motive was to make branded fashion available to buyers at good prices and help their sellers make space for new memories. To facilitate this, Once Again Store worked on a peer-peer model connecting buyers and sellers through their website and Android app while ensuring a no-fuss process for the sellers to sell their pre-loved goods.

By joining hands with the team at Once Again Store, CoutLoot envisions to enhance its offerings and services to offer a more seamless experience and an enriched trust factor for its consumers.

"We at CoutLoot have a very clear vision of how the pre-owned fashion market is going to pan out in India. At present, consolidation and creating a hybrid model is the need of the hour, since quality and authentication of a product is really what creates a seamless experience and trust among consumers. Once Again Store has a very interesting peer-to-peer model, which would now be a part of our hybrid model. Moving ahead, as the segment is still shaping up, we want to have all the corners covered and our acquisition of Once Again Store isn't just great news for shoppers but also for the re-commerce segment at large," said co-founder CoutLoot, Sahil Khimavat.

"We started Once Again Store with an unstinted faith in the idea of a shared economy in the fashion space. Over the years as the market is growing, new players have emerged in this segment. We really saw synergy with CoutLoot owing to its large consumer base in Mumbai and Delhi and the community that the team has created. Being just 21 years old, it's a great opportunity for us to take this idea to an evolved level by teaming up with CoutLoot," said co-founder Once Again Store, Umang Chordia.

"CoutLoot has a strong business model with a special eye on unit economics, with a dynamic young team, we're sure, CoutLoot is going to lead the fashion re-commerce segment in the country," said co-founder Vcats, Apoorv Ranjan Sharma.

CoutLoot which is a Mumbai based re-commerce player has made a strong entry into this segment and has emerged as one of the top players in this segment over the last one year, wherein it sees over 200+ orders and close to 1000 new listings every day. Sellers on CoutLoot include noted celebrities as well.

Recently backed by Facebook, CoutLoot raised its seed round of funding from Venture Catalysts in July 2016 and is now prepping up for its next round of funding soon. Based out of Mumbai, CoutLoot delivers all over India, however, selling is restricted to 14 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Surat, Kolkata, and Jaipur.