TrueFacet, A Marketplace For Pre-Owned Jewelry, Relaunches With New Texting Feature

If you were to collect all of the designer-label jewelry and watches in the world and throw them in a pile, TrueFacet cofounder and CEO Tirath Kamdar tells TechCrunch, over 40 percent of the pile would be counterfeit.

Knowing that, buying pre-owned pieces of jewelry or a watch from another individual, or even one of the many jewelry stores across 47th street in NYC’s Jewelry District, could seem like a bit of a risk. That’s where TrueFacet comes in.

The company, based in New York, lets both individuals and retailers sell pre-owned watches and pieces of jewelry which are carefully vetted and certified by TrueFacet’s own jewelry experts. In fact, not a single piece of jewelry sold on TrueFacet is delivered to the customer before going through TrueFacet’s NYC headquarters. The company has processed more than 5,000 pieces thus far.

Through a special pricing engine that weighs supply and demand, as well as average online price of the SKU, TrueFacet delivers a competitive price for both the buyer and the seller.

TrueFacet launched back in January of 2014 and is today re-launching with an entirely redesigned website, plus a Concierge feature.

The new Concierge feature lets users text one of TrueFacet’s experts to get help with a purchase, whether it’s just finding a specific SKU in a certain size or starting from scratch trying to pick out an anniversary present.

TrueFacet’s Concierge service started as a one-off tool after getting a few individual requests for specific pieces. Kamdar and his team started a Google Doc and after a few months, rows were numbering in the hundreds, so the engineering team got to work building out an SMS service.

Concierge not only instantly connects users to an expert, who will provide the specified piece for purchase within 48 hours, but it also allows users to send photos of jewelry or watches they see to get more information.

Since launch, TrueFacet has seen 20 to 25 percent growth month over month in terms of GMV, with over 42 percent growth in the past couple of months. The Concierge feature, even in beta, has received more than 1,200 requests, and TrueFacet’s average order value is over $2,200.

TrueFacet has raised a total of $4.8 million across two funding rounds from investors Maveron, FreeStyle Capital, and others.