How Vintage Furniture Marketplace Chairish Benefits From Trends and Tariff-Free Goods | CO

Why
it matters:

• The global market for secondhand furniture is expected to double over the next 10 years, to $87.6 billion.
• Since its launch 12 years ago, Chairish has sold more than one million items on its vintage furniture marketplace.
• Tariff concerns and consumer trends are creating strong tailwinds for Chairish and driving growth.

Anna
and Gregg Brockway launched online marketplace Chairish
in 2013 because they wanted to make it easier to sell and ship
pre-owned and vintage pieces of furniture.

Now,
12 years later, they are positioned to take advantage of key
tailwinds that are fueling Chairish’s growth. Consumer support for
sustainability and resale, concerns about price increases and
tariffs, and the growing popularity of vintage furniture pieces are
driving gains in sales and customer engagement.

“Tariffs
are making vintage even more attractive [to consumers] because it’s
stylish pieces with a story to tell, it’s ready to ship now so you
don’t have to worry about supply chain challenges or long wait
times for getting a piece from a manufacturer, and the value has
always been good and it’s getting better. And buying vintage is
kinder to the planet,” Gregg Brockway told CO—.

Chairish
also enables hundreds of furniture consignment shops and small
businesses to connect with customers around the world.

Chairish
doesn’t own or warehouse the furniture it sells. Instead, it shows
potential buyers a curated list of items and has the tech platform
that allows it to quickly calculate shipping costs and connect
sellers with the right shipping option.

Growing
amid the booming business of secondhand goods

The
global market for secondhand furniture is expected to double
over the next decade, from $40.2 billion in 2024 to $87.6 billion in
2034, according to market research firm Market.US.

The
growth comes as the overall market for secondhand products is
booming. Sales of all secondhand products are expected to grow at a
compound annual rate of 17.2% annually and exceed $1 trillion by
2025, according to a report
by Transparency Market Research.

Four
moves in three years inspired the launch of Chairish

Before
launching Chairish, Gregg Brockway cofounded two successful travel
planning startups, Tripit
and Hotwire,
and Anna Brockway had worked in fashion as Vice President of
Worldwide Marketing for Levi Strauss & Co.

“My
wife and I moved four times in three years, and we always had
furniture that didn’t fit into the new place and we always were
looking for pieces that did fit,” Brockway said. They preferred to
find vintage pieces, or furniture with, as Brockway likes to describe
it, “a story to tell.”

“One
night over a drink or two of wine, commiserating about how hard it
was, Anna said, ‘You’re a startup guy, you should solve this
problem,’” Brockway said.

He
responded that she was the creative thinker who should solve the
problem. They decided to tackle the challenge together and Chairish
was born.

“We’re
trying to help the secondary market for home furnishings become more
liquid,” Brockway said. “Most people don’t know how to ship a
piece of furniture across town, let alone across country or around
the world, and that’s made it a really hard secondary market to
bring to life,” he said.

The
listings on Chairish aren’t thrift store finds, but luxury and
upscale pieces with years of life in them and enough value to merit
shipping across country or overseas.

For
the past three years, Chairish has displayed its offerings in a
pop-up emporium at New York’s luxury department store landmark,
Bergdorf Goodman.

Initially,
Chairish focused exclusively on furniture, but it has since expanded
to include artwork, home décor, and jewelry, along with some curated
new merchandise.

[Read
more: Resale’s Next Big Wave: Execs From ThredUp to Trove on How Tech and Brand Adoption Are Driving Secondhand Retail Boom]

A
network of small businesses source Chairish’s marketplace inventory
of curated, upscale finds

The
Brockways originally envisioned Chairish as a strictly peer-to-peer
marketplace, with individuals selling to other individuals. But they
quickly realized that there were a lot of small businesses looking to
resell furniture—either
consignment stores or individuals who make a living finding
sought-after furniture pieces to resell.

“We
call them professional sellers,” Brockway said. “Today most of
our listings come from professional sellers.”

Having
a large number of listings from professional sellers helps Chairish
provide a more curated and vetted selection of furniture. For items
such as jewelry and artwork, the company typically works only with
professional sellers and galleries, to avoid issues like fraud and
counterfeiting.

For
individual, nonprofessional sellers who wish to list on Chairish, the
company has a team of curators who can help assess the value and
advise the seller about their listing.

Solving
Chairish’s price discovery and shipping cost transparency
challenges

Two
of the tech challenges Chairish faced when it launched were finding a
way to quickly show buyers the cost to ship a purchase and creating a
format that allows for price discovery.

Chairish
has relationships with shippers around the country and around the
world. It also has a preferential relationship with UPS
for items shipping within the United States.

“The
buyer wants to know, before they run their credit card, what it’s
going to cost to get that beautiful piece to where they want it to
go,” Brockway said. “We created a way of estimating, before the
transaction happens, exactly how much it’s going to cost you to get
it in your home.”

Price
discovery is another issue that makes it harder to resell furniture,
he said. “People don’t have a good sense of what furniture is
worth, so we let people list it and then we let people make offers.”

“If
you list a piece for $1,500, and I think it’s only worth $900, then
I can make you an offer for $900 and maybe you’ll accept it, or
maybe it will be a price in the middle, and there’s a little back
and forth, which is what happens in consignment stores” and other
markets, Brockway said.

Chairish
makes money by taking a commission on sales, and also by providing
additional paid services for sellers, including advertising and
expedited payment options.

As
inflation, high interest rates, and a sharp drop in home sales
created headwinds for the home furnishing and décor industry in
recent years, Chairish set a goal of becoming consistently
profitable. It has been EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation, amortization) profitable for the most recent
consecutive four quarters.

That
Chairish could show profitability during one of the slowest periods
for home sales in recent history makes Brockway confident that the
company is poised for even stronger growth.

[Read
more: 3 Consumer Brand Founders and CEOs on Finding Growth in B2B Channels]

Sales
to interior designers up 14% due to tariff concerns

Interior
decorators and designers are a big part of Chairish’s customer
base, and the company has seen 14% year-over-year growth in its
to-the-trade business.

Brockway
believes that is largely due to the impact increased tariffs are
expected to have on prices and shipping delays.

“Interior
designers are our savviest customers. They are often the leading
indicator —the
first mover—on
trends,” he said. Since the tariff announcement this spring, the
portion of Chairish’s sales going to interior designers has grown
twice as fast as previously, he said.

The
company also has seen a 700% increase in engagement and sell-through
in response to ads and marketing messages featuring Chairish’s
“tariff-free” merchandise.

While
tariffs could affect sales into the United States from overseas
sellers on Chairish, 85% of the listings on the site are items that
are already in the United States and free from any tariff impact.

A
broader trend toward sustainability and vintage expected to drive
sales

Beyond
tariffs, Brockway
sees a broader shift toward vintage furniture and pieces with “a
story to tell.”

“It’s
definitely a growing trend,” he said. “When we launched Chairish
initially we saw it as a big opportunity, but it wasn’t seen as a
cool opportunity by design lovers.”

Now,
he said, “it’s becoming increasingly common for buyers of all
sorts to think of buying something vintage as a kinder,
planet-friendly thing to do.”

CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

In partnership with

Improve your AI fluency

With potential benefits like increased revenue, faster time to market, and significant return on investment (ROI), AI can be a valuable investment for SMBs looking to thrive in a competitive market. Get a comprehensive understanding of AI through this learning path.

Learn More

Published June 24, 2025