Ex-Lazada boss Max Bittner on his move from ecommerce to ‘recommerce’

Former Lazada founder and CEO Max Bittner wants to talk shopping. He’s just bought some new sneakers, a Balenciaga hoodie, and some cashmere sweaters.

“I haven’t had a winter wardrobe for seven years,” he says. That’s because of Singapore’s never-ending heat and humidity.

Now that he’s moved on from the groundbreaking Southeast Asian startup he launched in 2012, he’s getting used to life in Paris, France. Plus, he needs to buy a lot of clothes.

Max Bittner / Photo credit: Vestiaire Collective

And if he’s name-dropping some couture brands, that’s because he’s now the CEO of Vestiaire Collective, a marketplace for pre-owned luxury fashion. In a cute twist of ecommerce, some people call this “recommerce.”

Perfect storm

“After I left Lazada, I spent a bit of time figuring out what to do with the rest of my life,” Bittner, 40, tells Tech in Asia. “I was still fairly young and full of passion and excitement for what I do.”

He explains that the question of what to do next wasn’t so much shaped by whether to do another startup or take a position at an established firm as by finding the right kind of opportunity.

And that’s what he saw in the French online store, which started in 2009 and is now pushing into Asia. Bittner, who hails from Germany, started as CEO of the store on January 1 this year.

“In many ways, I see the similarities in the opportunity to what I saw at Lazada,” he says.

He believes there’s “a perfect storm of super trends” around the world that bodes well for his new gig and, indeed, the whole luxury fashion segment. According to Bittner, those trends include the following:

• There’s a generational change in consumer behavior and a rethinking of the nature of ownership.
• People are concerned about sustainability, while also wanting new and fresh things to show off on Instagram.
• The luxury fashion market is now dependent on China for a big chunk of sales and a lot of growth.

“And if you look at those three things and the opportunities, I think Vestiaire is amazingly positioned,” he says.

Asian connection

With 340 employees globally, Vestiaire ships the pre-owned items to 50 countries from its four hubs – two in France, one in New York, and one in Hong Kong with 20 staffers. Most of its shoppers are in mainland Europe, the UK, the US, and Asia.

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