Marketplace Briefing: How Wolf & Badger is winning U.S. shoppers despite luxury retail’s slowdown
This is the latest installment of the Marketplace Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the ever-changing e-commerce marketplace landscape. More from the series →
Slowing sales and tepid demand have imperiled some of the biggest names in the online luxury industry, but London-based Wolf & Badger is bucking the trend.
Wolf & Badger, an e-commerce marketplace known for selling sustainably sourced premium goods from independent designers, surged in 2024 thanks to fast-growing demand in the U.S., its now-largest market. Wolf & Badger’s U.S. sales skyrocketed from $3 million in 2019 to over $45 million in 2024. The U.S. now accounts for nearly half of the platform’s total sales. 2024 was also the year Wolf & Badger hit $95 million in gross merchandise value, another first for the company. Wolf & Badger closed out 2024 as its second profitable year in a row.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, executives at Wolf & Badger told Modern Retail that the U.S. market will be a core focus of the company’s growth plans.
“We’ve outperformed our peers and are positioned for strong growth in 2025,” said George Graham, Wolf & Badger’s CEO and co-founder.
The luxury e-commerce market, once saturated with competitors, faced a reckoning in 2024 amid a broader slowdown in high-end goods. Last January, Korean e-commerce giant Coupang completed its acquisition of online luxury platform Farfetch, injecting $500 million in emergency funding to stabilize the floundering e-tailer. In July, luxury e-tailer Matches shut down its website after intense competition, shifting consumer preferences and rising operational costs strained the business. And in October, Mytheresa acquired Net-a-Porter’s parent company.
The space is still competitive, with players like Mytheresa, Farfetch and even mainstream platforms like Amazon offering high-end goods. But Wolf & Badger has emerged as a bright spot in the beleaguered luxury e-commerce sector by offering a curated selection of premium offerings from emerging designers that shoppers can’t get anywhere else. As a certified B Corp marketplace, Wolf & Badger’s promise of ethical production further distinguishes its model from traditional luxury e-commerce operators. Put together, it’s proving to be a winning combination.
Founded in 2010 by brothers George Graham and Henry Graham, Wolf & Badger started as a brick-and-mortar store in London’s Notting Hill. The company gained traction, and in 2016, the company made its first major move into the U.S. with a store in New York’s Soho neighborhood.
“The New York store was really dictated by customers visiting us in the U.K. who kept saying, ‘You guys would do great in the U.S.,’” said Henry Graham, the company’s creative director.
Wolf & Badger’s founders credit the marketplace’s growth to its curated selection of more than 2,000 independent designers across fashion, homeware and beauty. “We’re very selective about the brands we let onto the platform,” George Graham said. “We could easily have 20,000 brands, but we consciously restrict it to maintain a thoughtful customer experience.” On average, nearly 300 brands per month applied to be stocked on Wolf & Badger in 2024.
This approach has won Wolf & Badger a dedicated fanbase among American consumers, especially those seeking unique products and alternatives to e-commerce giants like Amazon. “American customers are more willing to take a risk on brands they haven’t shopped from before if they trust the retailer,” Henry Graham said.
To Brian Ehrig, a partner in the consumer practice of management consulting firm Kearney, Wolf & Badger’s one-of-a-kind product assortment is key to helping the marketplace stand out in a sea of luxury platforms selling the same designers and goods.
“In the U.S., fashion is more about being cool rather than being expensive, so companies focused on indie brands are doing really well,” he said. “You don’t want to be your fifth friend to own the same bag or the same pair of shoes.”
To that end, Wolf & Badger’s price range is eclectic. For instance, a limited edition coat made by Venture Latin costs $4,651. But on the lower end, a Kristinit coat retails for $95. Wolf & Badger also sells a ball gown that costs $8,420, as well as a $186 slip dress.
Zooming out, the U.S. has become an increasingly hot market for high-end goods, particularly as China, which accounts for about 30% of the luxury sector’s sales, continues to suffer a dramatic slowdown. From 2015 to 2023, U.S. consumers accounted for 25% of the global luxury sector’s growth, matching China’s contribution during the same period, according to UBS analysts cited by The Financial Times.
Wolf & Badger’s online marketplace is the main growth engine for the business 95% of its sales occur online — but its physical stores play a crucial role in other areas of the business, namely in-person events connecting brands with customers. Wolf & Badger also uses its stores to shoot content for its social media channels. In addition to the New York store, the company operates a location in Los Angeles’s West Hollywood. Looking ahead, Wolf & Badger is exploring further physical expansion in key U.S. markets like Texas and Florida.
Wolf & Badger’s distinct point of view when it comes to sustainability has also helped it stand out from its online luxury competitors. Unlike traditional companies, B Corps like Wolf & Badger are legally required to consider the impact of their decision to all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Such companies undergo rigorous assessment by B Lab, the nonprofit that issues the certification, to ensure that they adhere to ethical business practices, from ensuring fair wages throughout their supply chains to prioritizing sustainable brands.
Although B Corps have grown rapidly — the number of certified B Corps operating globally more than doubled from 2020 to 2023 — they’re uncommon among luxury retailers, according to Kearney’s Ehrig. Some other notable exceptions include Kering and Another Tomorrow.
“Talking about sustainability or being a Certified B Corp is pretty rare in the luxury world,” he said. “Luxury companies really don’t want to talk about what they’re doing around sustainability, so it’s quite differentiating to do that.”
Finally, unlike other luxury e-commerce players, Wolf & Badger has built its online business on a model that’s designed to keep costs low. Wolf & Badger’s brand partners pay $375 a month, which helps pad the company’s margins, on top of the undisclosed commission it takes from each sale.
As Kearney’s Ehrig put it, “If you have an asset-light model like Wolf & Badger has, where you don’t own the inventory and you’re just a marketplace providing access to these cool brands and that’s your value proposition, that’s a really good idea.”
Marketplace news to know
- Temu is accelerating its shift to a “half-custody” model where Temu only manages the online marketplace, a shift away from the platform’s original model where sellers let Temu decide handle pricing, shipping and marketing, per Bloomberg.
- TikTok takes aim at Amazon with a new feature that lets users subscribe to products to receive repeat shipments in exchange for a discount, per Business Insider.
- Amazon is expanding its beauty and personal care online assortment in Europe; it’s also opening its first physical store in Italy.