“Okay, these are Celine. Black, Celine sun shades for $250. These are hearth.”
Christos Garkinos’ voice sweeps over an Instagram Dwell on a Sunday night with the rhythmic and impassioned tempo of an auctioneer’s chant.
“Let’s get this transferring. You look attractive in these sun shades. These are Celine. #91 placing the value up proper now. … $250 Offered! Congratulations Nicky! I believe Nicky’s new. Welcome Nicky. Congratulations.”
Applause and champagne toast emojis start to stack up within the feedback from the 100-plus consumers who’ve tuned in for “Covet by Christos,” the dwell stream buying present Garkinos has hosted since he first took to Instagram Dwell to promote Louis Vuitton purses in March 2020.
A cross between a charismatic emcee and a greatest good friend supplying you with recommendation within the dressing room, Garkinos has been a fixture throughout a number of eras of dwell promoting, together with touring trunk exhibits and his personal style line – Eureka! – on the HSN shoppable tv community within the 2010s.
But it surely was his pandemic pivot to Instagram that turned Garkinos into the king of dwell luxurious resale. He estimates he has generated roughly $100 million in income by way of Covet by Christos, with a median present producing roughly $22,000 in gross sales of luxurious classic, magnificence, loungewear and residential decor. There are not any returns.
Garkinos’ success is partly right down to sheer ubiquity: Covet by Christos streams six instances a day, 45 instances per week, for a cumulative 4,000 hours during the last 5 years. However he was additionally early to what has change into a full-fledged dwell buying growth. Lengthy well-liked in Asia, the idea solely caught on within the US with the launch of TikTok Store in 2023. All of the sudden, direct promoting was in customers’ feeds, they usually preferred what they noticed. Within the US, dwell streaming buying’s gross sales are anticipated to hit $68 billion in 2026, up from $20 billion in 2022, in response to Coresight Analysis.
Garkinos has expanded Covet by Christos to TikTok and different platforms, and has employed 10 hosts to handle the rising quantity of content material (Garkinos himself now hosts about 30 % of the dwell exhibits). His first e book, “Covet the Comeback: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Discovered Success, Misplaced Every thing, Then Constructed a Style Empire” is out on March 23.
His whole empire is constructed on a loyal following – the Stos Squad – who’ve adopted him from platform to platform, and even meet up for in-person buying journeys world wide. It’s a small neighborhood, however a rich one: Garkinos says his prime 5 consumers spend upward of $1 million by Covet by Christos yearly.
“I don’t want 1000’s of individuals, I simply want the correct individuals,” he stated. “It’s neighborhood first, merchandise second … I need individuals to have enjoyable and be entertained.”
Origin Story
A fan of HSN since he was 14, Garkinos stated he would cry with happiness when Adriana Pappel would promote out of her line throughout a present. His first jobs included gross sales and advertising and marketing for Clorox, Virgin and Disney, which helped him perceive the significance of understanding the client.
In 2013, Garkinos starred within the Bravo present, “Dukes of Melrose,” chronicling his life and every day dealings at LA luxurious reseller A long time Two. The present lasted only one season. A few years after his ladies’s clothes line “Eureka by Christos Garkinos” shuttered in 2016, he took his luxurious resale trunk exhibits on the highway.
He often traveled to mid-tier US markets to host excessive finish trunk exhibits, creating buying alternatives in cities that he says, “have some huge cash, however no luxurious shops.” When the US started to enter lockdown in 2020, Garkinos was in Chicago for a trunk present of classic Louis Vuitton baggage. He discovered himself with $150,000 price of excessive finish equipment to promote, plus $30,000 owed to consignors from trunk exhibits earlier within the yr.
With no different choices for promoting the stock, he turned on Instagram Dwell and commenced pitching Louis Vuitton. The viewers for his initially weekly exhibits grew by phrase of mouth throughout the lockdowns, as individuals appeared for brand new actions they may do from residence.
Covet by Christos continues to be propelled by phrase of mouth, with between 500-2000 individuals tuning into every dwell present. He tightly curates the classes and merchandise offered by the platform and says that there’s a waitlist of 250 manufacturers all thinking about being offered throughout a dwell present. Garkinos purposely refrains from seeing the product in particular person earlier than a present so the viewers will get his pure response to every piece.
Pleasant Competitors
Garkinos attributes that tight connection solid along with his viewers throughout the depths of the pandemic for his success in the present day.
“It’s like going buying with 125 of your closest associates,” stated Faryl Gilston, founder and chief government of the shoe firm Farylrobin, has been buying by way of Covet by Christos for a couple of years, and counts a 1966 Hermes Kelly bag as one in all her greatest purchases.
“Ladies are excited for you if you purchase one thing,” she stated. “Positive, typically you’re competing for a sure piece, however everybody applauds for each other when somebody lands it.”
Probably the most devoted members of the Stos Squad take annual buying journeys to locales like London or Dubai in what they name “Christos Con.” Some ladies who join throughout the Instagram Dwell exhibits have change into associates outdoors of the platform and get collectively offline, whether or not for lunch or a Christos Con buying journey to Greece.
“We’ve gotten individuals by well being points and monetary points,” says Garkinos. Throughout the current LA wildfires, the Stos Squad raised $100,000 for one of many classic resellers on Covet By Christos whose residence burned within the Eaton hearth. Members of the neighborhood donated a luxurious merchandise for a dwell present devoted to elevating funds for the fireplace sufferer and her household.
Garkinos desires of at some point launching the “Netflix of buying,” the place he can supply dwell promoting impartial of any social media platforms.
“In a method, it’s so a lot larger than buying,” Garkinos stated. “I’ve been watching this kind of promoting for 35 years. I do know what to do.”
