Building a luxury business from scratch couldn’t possibly be that hard, right? A beautiful store, rare handbags, Rolex watches, and customers willing to spend thousands almost seems like a surefire recipe for success. But Adam Abraham’s story with Love Luxury started much further away from that world.
Long before Love Luxury became a recognised name in luxury resale, Adam was learning the basics of business in a much less glamorous setting. He grew up in Hackney and worked with his father at Camden Market. That’s where he learned exactly what people value, how to negotiate, and, perhaps most importantly, how to spot an opportunity where others don’t.
The result of all that experience? Love Luxury. Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into the brand’s story and how Adam Abraham built it from scratch.
Adam Abraham’s Early Lessons in Entrepreneurship
Growing up in Hackney, Adam worked with his father from a young age, selling inexpensive goods at Camden Market.
Since he dealt directly with customers, he quickly learned that knowing the product is only half the job. You also have to read people, negotiate without giving away your margin, and understand what something is actually worth.
Those lessons stayed with Adam even as he eventually moved into eCommerce. He began working with businesses like Cables UK, which taught him how to source, price, market, and sell products online at scale. It’s a familiar pattern in the stories of entrepreneurs who turned early, hands-on experience into much bigger businesses.
By the time Adam entered luxury resale, he already knew the mechanics of buying and selling, but the stakes were about to get bigger.
COVID-19 Turned a Side Business Into the Main Opportunity
Not all business opportunities are strategically planned. Sometimes, they arise simply because circumstances force you to look at your business differently. That’s kind of what happened to Adam during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the pandemic, luxury goods were already appearing through Adam’s existing buying and selling businesses. Still, Love Luxury had not yet become the business it is today.
Then, the world changed almost overnight. Shops were closed, customers stayed home, and the usual ways of doing business became a lot more difficult.
In many cases, that meant putting your business’s growth on hold. Adam instead had to ask a more useful question: if customers couldn’t come to the business, could the business go to them?
So, the Abrahams began listing luxury pieces on eBay during lockdown. Luckily, they were onto something. The online store reportedly sold out within just eight weeks.
Turning a Resale Business Into a Luxury Brand
Selling a designer handbag for several thousand pounds is one thing. Convincing someone to trust you with several thousand pounds is another.
Adam Abraham understood that luxury resale could not be treated like an ordinary second-hand business. Customers buying a pre-owned Rolex or Hermès handbag are not simply looking for a bargain. They want to know what they’re buying, whether it’s authentic, and whether the person on the other side of the transaction knows what they’re talking about.
This is where Adam’s early experience came in handy. His years spent buying and selling had taught him how to assess products, negotiate prices, and understand value.
That’s when the Abrahams moved to Beauchamp Place in Knightsbridge. Being based in one of London’s best-known luxury districts put the company in an environment where its products and clientele made sense. It also gave customers somewhere tangible to associate with the brand.
How Social Media Changed Love Luxury’s Growth Trajectory
For a business selling luxury watches and designer handbags, social media seems like an obvious marketing channel. Love Luxury wanted to take a people-centric approach to that.
Adam and Emily Abraham began putting themselves in front of the camera to show what was happening behind the scenes of the business. Instead of posting endless product shots, Love Luxury’s content gave viewers a look at the people buying, selling, and handling these pieces every day. There was personality, real transactions, expensive finds, business decisions, and the occasional glimpse into their life outside the showroom.
This changed the relationship between the audience and the brand.
Someone scrolling past a Rolex or Hermès handbag may not stop because, well, it can be expensive. But give them a story or a surprisingly high-value deal, and suddenly they have a reason to keep watching.
The results were huge. The company’s Instagram account got more than 66 million views and 100,000 followers within just four months of its increased focus on the platform.
The company’s own account of this journey gives us a closer look at how Love Luxury built its social media presence and reached a growing global audience.
Building Love Luxury Around People
There is a reason people remember the Abrahams, not just the handbags and watches at Love Luxury.
Luxury resale can easily become a catalogue business. One product after another, each with its brand name, price and condition listed underneath. Useful, for sure, but not exactly memorable. Love Luxury took a different route by putting Adam and Emily at the centre of the story.
This way, customers could see the same people appearing in videos, discussing purchases, handling luxury pieces, and sharing what was happening inside the business. Over time, Adam became part of what customers associated with Love Luxury itself.
Still, personality was never enough on its own. A charismatic founder can attract attention, but attention doesn’t automatically create a successful luxury business. Love Luxury still had the essentials: knowledge, authentication, accurate valuations, strong customer service, and the ability to source desirable pieces.
It’s honestly a great lesson for entrepreneurs beyond luxury retail. A strong founder-led brand doesn’t mean making the founder the entire business. It just means using the people behind the company to make its expertise and values easier for customers to understand.
Conclusion
Love Luxury’s success ultimately came down to what happened after the initial opportunity. Adam Abraham focused on building a business that could scale, rather than just maximising short-term returns.
By reinvesting 95% of their earnings, Adam was able to fuel that growth. Plus, the business expanded to Dubai as the natural next step for a brand already attracting an international audience.
If aspiring entrepreneurs learn anything from the Abrahams’ story, it’s this: build something strong enough to travel, then invest in making it bigger.
