Romanian B2B clothing marketplace Unfrosen reaches EUR 1.2 million in sales in 9 months

Unfrosen, a private B2B marketplace for selling outlet-type stocks of clothing, footwear, and accessories, surpassed sales of over EUR 1.2 million just 9 months after its launch.

The Romanian startup was founded by Horia Stupu, Șerban Buliga, and Ciprian Dudulea. It resulted from the pivot of the startup The Outfit, which ceased operations at the end of 2022.

Sellers on Unfrosen are big brands or retailers, and the buyers are independent stores. Since its official launch at the end of March 2023, over 2,000 store accounts (from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Greece) have been created, and over 50 suppliers have signed up to sell their stocks through the platform. Among Unfrosen's sellers are 3 of the top 10 retailers in Europe and 5 brands from the top 50 globally.

“The transactions we facilitate through our platform are between fashion stores that don't have access to top brands and large companies that want to obtain liquidity quickly and efficiently when the level of stocks from past seasons exceeds a certain threshold,” said Șerban Buliga, co-founder of Unfrosen.

1 in 6 clothing items produced does not end up in the possession of a customer. In the context of recent European legislation regarding the prohibition of destroying unsold clothes, Unfrosen comes as an efficient and sustainable solution to take over these products and reintroduce them into the economic circuit.

“We want to become the main platform where brands and retailers can instantly liquidate any product from past seasons,” added Ciprian Dudulea.

How does it work? Sellers list their products on the platform and set the access rules for stores. They select the countries where they want to sell the stock, the type of stores (online or offline), and even the distance from the nearest mall where the brand store is located.

Stores can access over 100,000 products from dozens of brands. Orders are placed online, and products are delivered from the sellers' warehouses directly to the stores. Unfrosen handles logistics, billing, payment terms, and customer relations. All stores with an active company and demonstrating commercial activity in clothing, footwear, or accessories can gain access to the platform.

“We want to offer stores in Europe an online procurement solution through which they can access previous collections of top brands at a considerable discount. Before Unfrosen, these transactions happened on WhatsApp, in a way that was completely out of the control of brands and retailers. A so-called grey market,” said Horia Stupu.

At the moment, 85% of the approved stores are offline and only 15% sell online. 45% have an annual turnover of up to EUR 50,000, 25% between EUR 50,000 and 200,000, 22% between EUR 200,000 and 500,000, and only 8% exceed EUR 500,000.