Lemonade unveils the industry-first Manufacturer-to-Consumer Model

After six months of beta-testing, Lemonade formally launches as a honestly priced luxury brand that sells wardrobe & home essentials. This “marketplace brand” has a high-quality at lowest price promise, backed by an industry-first retail model called manufacturer-to-consumer (“M2C”), significantly different from traditional luxury brands and the plethora of D2C businesses. 

Ahead of the launch, Lemonade acquired a waitlist of more than 10,000 consumers and raised a $1m concept stage pre-seed round from several prolific investors globally to build out the infrastructure necessary to introduce a new model of commerce in Asia.

The business premise of Lemonade was born out of the fact that most global luxury brands source their product from India/China anyway via a complex supply chain, and thereon apply their wild markups. So, their product cost is not that high. In traditional partnerships between manufacturers and luxury brands, the former usually gets the short stick in the deal. The brands capture the majority of the revenue, leaving small margins to satisfy the manufacturers. Lemonade has created a new way forward for both manufacturers and consumers.

Lemonade’s innovative M2C model enables factories and manufacturers around the country to sell goods directly to consumers. Over the past couple of months, the company has curated a network of 10+ top-quality manufacturers across a variety of categories, from pure cashmere to modal satin, to poplin cotton, and 100%  leather.
Before any item is sourced, Lemonade strictly vets each manufacturing partner on extremely tight and exact standards of production, examining prior certifications, quality control practices, craftsmanship and sustainability initiatives. Mostly, manufacturers who pass this inspection, already produce for well-known brands, such as Masimo Dutti, Galeries Lafayette, Ralph Lauren, Loro Piana & Hermes to name a few.

These luxury-level goods are then shipped directly to the customers, without following the traditional route of factories to middlemen to retail stores and so on. There are no labels, honest to goodness markups, and simply good stuff elevating your lifestyle. To build this direct supply chain, we architected a sophisticated infrastructure of point-to-point logistics across multiple vendors and carriers, using technology to make the ambitious vision of connecting makers and consumers a reality.

“The brand’s asset-light M2C model is a radical reinvention in online retail,” said Sambuddha Bhattacharya, Founder & CEO of Lemonade. “Historically, retailers and manufacturers had misaligned, fragmented relationships. Lemonade’s approach aligns the interests of the factory looking for better margins, the consumer looking for a better price and value, and a retail industry desperately in need of what’s next.”

“Over the past year, Lemonade has quickly built an impressive assortment of premium-quality products at unbeatable prices”, he added. The consumer response has validated the market opportunity, and the brand is scaling 30% month on month.