The first Guiltless luxury shopping experience in Hong Kong

People in search of quality secondhand luxury products available in Asia, will quickly notice that the big names in luxury reselling focus on Europe and North America. Both in terms of where they sell as well as where they source their products. Yen Kuok, the CEO & Founder of Guiltless recognized there would be a big demand in Asia because it has the highest number of luxury consumers, and turnover is much higher.

Whereas women in Europe might have the same luxury handbag for decades, women in Asia are quick to move on to the next purchase within a few years. And that doesn’t always work well considering the very limited closet space available in average Hong Kong homes. Yen decided to give the Asian luxury consumers the reselling experience they needed, and started Guiltless.

Guiltless is a premium luxury reseller brand of pre-loved and off-season designer apparel, handbags, shoes, accessories, jewelry, watches and lifestyle products. The name implies a guiltless experience for both buyers as well as sellers. Secondhand shopping is still a bit taboo in Asia, so the premium shopping experience makes shopping there more guilt free. For buyers, Guiltless take away the feeling of guilt that might come from having unused contemporary luxury items sitting in the closet. It’s a Guiltless experience for shoppers, and guilt free living for sellers.

The pop-up store in Man Yee Arcade, 68 Des Voeux Road Central, is the first public offline outing for the brand. “With this pop-up, we want to let the people in Hong Kong experience our brand, and see our products in person,” Kuok said. “Having people come into our store, and see our high-quality products really helps us with building brand credibility. As a startup, doing that with a website alone can be really challenging.”

In their pop-up store, they aim to offer their customers a very different experience compared to most other luxury shops. Kuok said, “Our products all have their own story, so we want to present our products in a very playful and engaging way. We want to be exciting and have fun things that attract customers.”

That was an evident part of the pop-up concept, as they had a big clawing machine that customers could activate with their phones to try and grab fun goodies. Another in-store offering that grabbed attention was the display selling pre-owned celebrity items, once belonging to stars like Cherie Chung, Shu Qi, Michelle Yeoh, where 70% of the revenue goes to the Crossroads Foundation.

The location on Des Voeux Road Central puts Guiltless right where it needs to be: a high foot traffic location with mostly affluent and aspirational shoppers passing by. “We looked at half a dozen locations all over Hong Kong, but this prestigious location was simply the best option for us to make a good first impression,” Yen Kuok explained. “Working with Storefront made the whole process a lot easier. We had difficulties with other landlords but the staff at Storefront was very involved and engaged in helping us find the right location. We really worked together as a team.”

The pop-up store has been very successful, and Guiltless has decided to extend the opening until 26 December, 2017. They are considering making the pop-up an annual thing, and even expanding into other cities across Asia, Europe and North America.

Discover the Contemporary Central Pop-Up Shop here.

Click here to look for other spaces in Hong Kong!