A new frontier in second-hand design, Deesup is the first marketplace that buys and sells iconic high-end furnishings in the name of the circular economy.
Giving a second life to iconic high-end furnishings and democratising design. Deesup is revolutionising the world of interior furnishing with the first marketplace for pre-owned signed pieces only. And it does so with a clear vocation: to steer a sector still governed by very rigid rules towards the circular economy, making reuse the alternative channel to fast furniture in order to protect the environment and honour beautiful things.
"Produce less and enjoy design for longer — not once but infinitely": that is the motto around which Valentina Cerolini and Daniele Ena founded Deesup in 2017. The company has joined the ecosystem of LifeGate Way — the group's subsidiary aimed at building a network of sustainable startups with a focus on open innovation — and has launched on Doorway a crowdfunding campaign, which will close on 30 June, as part of a broader investment round targeting one million euros.
Deesup, Valentina Cerolini told us — CEO and co-founder of the startup — was born out of a very common experience: buying a new home and deciding what to do with the furnishings already there, which, despite being designer pieces, did not reflect the new occupants' tastes. The situation raised several questions and led the founders of Deesup to come up against a market that was both very costly and not particularly accessible, as well as far from sustainable. Manufacturing and shipping a single piece of furniture, in fact, "costs" around 90 kilograms of CO2 — the equivalent of a Boeing 747 in flight for one hour. Another aspect that tends to be overlooked is the end of life of furniture.
Whereas in the fashion sector second-hand has long since been normalised — to the point of becoming positively cool, as the sheer number of vintage markets now in existence attests — in furnishings this trend is moving somewhat more slowly, with millions of tonnes of furniture thrown away every year. And it is precisely here that Deesup steps in, setting out to extend the life cycle of iconic, authentic design pieces, reducing waste and cutting unnecessary consumption, in a circular economy perspective.
How did Deesup come about? What is the idea behind it?
Deesup was born in 2017 from a personal need: after buying a home, we found ourselves faced with significant designer furnishings that nonetheless did not match our preferences. We then asked ourselves how to remove them, how to give them value, how to sell them, who to give them to. At the same time, we wanted to furnish our home in a certain way, with a certain type of furniture, but we ran into a market that was very costly and not very accessible. From this came the idea of creating a channel dedicated to adding value to pre-owned furnishings. We were the first in Italy. Then a phase of market research began: during the Salone del mobile we went around interviewing people attending the Salone and the Fuorisalone, so that we could build a kind of profile. From our sample it emerged that our idea aroused curiosity and interest.
Where does Deesup's name come from?
The name Deesup was born from an online contest that saw the participation of creatives and designers: we gave them guidelines and parameters and chose a winner on the basis of the originality and curiosity the name could inspire. Deesup is a combination of "design" and "up", intended to mean "taking design to a higher level", which for us means a second life. The logo features two opposing "E"s that are reminiscent of a design furniture piece.
What is the problem Deesup sets out to solve?
The problem is twofold: on the one hand, providing access to the design market, through a kind of democratisation of furnishings that are often inaccessible due to price and markup; on the other, offering potential sellers a secure channel through which to add value to their products, with an end-to-end service ranging from the assessment of the piece to its promotion, from the physical collection of the product after the sale to delivery. These two problems come together within a trend in the market in which we operate — that of resale. A trend that gained significant traction especially in 2020 with the pandemic, when the home became "the place to be". There is therefore a sense of appreciation for objects, certainly also of saving money, but above all of a reduced environmental impact.
In what way can design contribute to sustainability?
It can contribute enormously. We recently carried out a small study and it emerged that producing a sofa today is estimated to emit around 250 kilograms of CO2. We ran a simulation, imagining that all the products sold in our online shop were sofas or more or less similar furnishings. Well, we would be saving thousands of tonnes of CO2. Making products last longer — and high-quality furnishings can indeed last a long time — means producing less. If less is produced, the environmental impact is lower, and reputational benefits can be gained. We consider ourselves generators of liquidity, in the sense that a private individual comes to us, sells a pre-owned piece and uses what they earn to buy, perhaps, the armchair from the latest new collection. So it really is a circular economy: the pre-owned becomes new and the new becomes pre-owned. Like us, the manufacturers are also embracing this cause, demonstrating that the furnishings sector has enormous potential.
Where do your products come from?
We started by building a community of private sellers, then over time we understood that it could also be a very effective channel for showrooms, distributors and the manufacturers themselves, who have sample stock, display products, defective items, end-of-line pieces, unmatched products, and items returned from photoshoots. Both manufacturers and retailers often find themselves with warehouses of varying sizes full of products that have no outlet. So from an economic point of view it is a cost for them, and from an environmental point of view it is damaging, because things are produced and then not used. We would say we have around 40 per cent of products coming from private individuals and 60 per cent coming from trade sources.
Behind Deesup there is a precise and rigorous furniture selection process. How does it work?
Selection is our added value. We usually ask all sellers — private or professional — for photographic material, using very precise guidelines we provide, showing the item in its current setting from various angles; in particular, one of these photos must clearly show the brand mark. If this is not present, perhaps because the manufacturer chose not to include it, we ask for certificates of authenticity and purchase invoices. We are very strict about this, because publishing a product of dubious origin is absolutely not in our interest. So it does happen that we turn down items that are beautiful and carefully selected, but lack the distinctive detail of an iconic product.
When it comes to purchasing a second-hand piece of furniture, how much is driven by the desire for a unique product, and how much by sustainability?
That's a great question, and one we ask ourselves every day. Today, what drives a user to buy a second-hand product is certainly a mix of factors that shape a sentiment, but at the core there is the desire to own the design icon they have always dreamed of. There has undoubtedly been a growing sense of responsibility towards purchases with a lower environmental impact. What we have noticed — because we have carried out surveys — is that the primary driver is the desire for a design product; however, this activates the intention to search for a particular product, and when the customer finds and discovers Deesup, a channel that acts responsibly, the decision-making process shortens, and so there is greater motivation to convert intention into a purchase. We have always embraced the cause of reuse and sustainability, and we have now made it our mission: our statement is to enable design enthusiasts to discover timeless icons in a sustainable way.
Has the reluctance towards making a luxury purchase online been overcome, or is there still a degree of distrust among the public?
Trust is something that has to be earned. Today there is generally greater familiarity with the web. Deesup, as a marketplace, offers the opportunity both to buy and to sell. Many users arrive, make a purchase, and then a few months later resell and buy other things. People like to change, and by making this process easier, purchases are made more light-heartedly. Of course, it is still always a significant purchase — a durable, luxury item — but in general, that fear of buying online seems to have been overcome. Naturally, this also varies from country to country. Establishing a relationship of trust is fundamental: the most effective approach for us has been to build a direct relationship with both the seller and the buyer.
What is Deesup's approach to foreign markets?
We started in Italy, creating a channel for sellers and buyers, but from the very beginning we tested the European market. It happened somewhat by chance, because customers from Germany, France and Spain were contacting us asking for information about products. We realised that they were reaching us organically through search engines, so we ran a test through digital campaigns, which received a positive response. From the outset, foreign customers showed a significant inclination to purchase multiple pieces of furniture, and after conducting further research, we understood that Made in Italy is certainly a driver. Another important aspect in the furnishings sector is product scarcity: if Italy has one hundred retailers, Germany has ten; so it is harder for someone abroad to purchase the design armchair that may still be in production. Deesup offers the opportunity to buy that same armchair, or one from a previous collection, second-hand. So Made in Italy plus scarcity equals a foreign customer who greatly appreciates this proposition.
Goals for the future?
In 2020 we went through a phase of strong growth; the market was very active, and people changed their habits: a greater inclination towards online shopping, trust in intermediary channels like ours, a desire to have a beautiful, well-organised home with objects they love, and greater sensitivity towards sustainability. To respond to this boom and support our growth, we opened an investment round to raise further resources, to expand the team — we are currently a team of 12 — to move into new markets, but also to consolidate our presence in the European market, becoming the reference player in the luxury second-hand furnishings channel. Another area we are working on is the sophistication of the technology we use.
Today we have a digital platform, enabled for both selling and buying, which we want to make even more efficient by speeding up the product listing process and further automating the selection phase, which is our core business. We want to invest in augmented reality and image recognition. We have many projects in the pipeline, and to pursue them we have opened an investment round targeting one million euros, of which the crowdfunding campaign on Doorway — closing on 30 June — is a part. The choice of Doorway, an online equity investing platform authorised by Consob, in which institutional investors, business angels and private equity funds can invest in selected high-scalability startups and SMEs, was guided by a shared commitment to environmental impact that unites us and the platform. Internationalisation must also be approached in a structured way, and we first want to exhaust the European potential, which is enormous. While initially our community was made up of Italian sellers only, we have recently enabled the platform to host foreign sellers, who are beginning to arrive from France, Germany and the Benelux.
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