How to get started selling high-end items?

Hi everyone,

I have a friend who's family makes these very nice, high quality hand made rugs (they live out of country). He and I have been talking about possibly selling them here in the USA. Comparable rugs we have seen go for thousands of dollars (we've looked into this, so just take my word for it).

The issue I see is establishing trust with customers to actually be able to sell them. Has anyone done anything like this before? I feel like setting up a shopify store and having a few rugs on it that cost a couple of thousands of dollars each doesn't seem likely to work, and I have no idea how to get started otherwise other than making contact with an interior designer or something, which doesn't seem very likely.

How do you start selling a high end item online, without being established already?