Let's Talk Resale

Let's Talk Resale

In 2022 alone, there were 150 billion new garments produced to clothe a world of only 8 billion. 90% of that ends up in landfills. No question, the fashion industry is hurtling toward a reckoning. Here at Trove, we intend to learn, unlearn, and relearn so we can inspire our peers, the industry, and our youth that as a collectively conscious body, we can achieve growth without growing our emissions. Let’s Talk Resale is a foundational series that considers the emerging landscape of resale also known as recommerce. We follow Andy Ruben - Founder and Executive Chair of Trove - as he dives deep into the trends shaping the circular economy. Each episode’s theme will address key issues that brands face when adopting a recommerce platform. We’ll interrogate the nuances of sustainability and discuss the implications of recommerce for brand control. You’ll hear key anecdotes from brands with resale models that are already thriving, such as REI, in addition to a bottom-up approach, where we interview several members of Gen Z, and gain insight into the future consumer. To capture the fast-paced weekly news in the resale industry, we have an episode every Tuesday, The Resale Edit, that highlights the key trends and takeaways for brands and their teams which is hosted by Trove's Head of Content, Samantha Dersarkissian. Subscribe to the accompanying newsletter here. This series is a tour de force that will educate, inspire, and offer insight into Trove’s product and vision. While targeted to thought leaders and luxury executives, all listeners will gain a robust understanding of the state of recommerce. Along the way, you'll come to face the inevitable choice fashion brands must make to stay relevant in the 21st century. Looking for more resale content? Check out www.trove.com

Episodes

November 22, 2023 43 mins
Join host Andy Ruben, founder of Trove, in a groundbreaking episode where the intersection of business and sustainability takes center stage. Uncover the strategies and insights that redefine sustainability as not only essential but smart business. In this candid conversation, Andy and industry experts Asha Agrawal Head of Corporate Dev at Patagonia, Chris Riley, former strategic planning director Wieden+Kennedy, and J.R. Siegel Sr...
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In this episode of "Let’s Talk Resale," we dive into the future of item digitization, where every product will have its own digital identity. Joined by industry leaders, we'll discuss how brands are navigating this new terrain, especially in light of emerging initiatives like the EU's digital product passports. This isn't just about meeting new standards; it's about leveraging this dual physical-digital nature, much as products lik...
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Who is the customer of tomorrow? How do they shop? What do brand - and brand values - mean to them?

In this second episode of Let’s Talk Resale, we consider brands' future customers. We live amid a massive cultural shift in customers' beliefs and priorities. Digital commerce and internet ubiquity have changed the shopping experience - brands, pricing, reviews, and comments. Gen Z is coming into their earning years with a fresh poin...
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ThredUp and eBay in the News: Decoding Their Moves to Uncover the Future of Resale
This Weeks Key Takeaways:

  • Embrace in-house resale channels: While brands can learn from resale marketplaces, it's essential to bring resale in-house as it becomes a more significant portion of sales
  • Leverage strategic partnerships with marketplaces: As platforms like eBay continue to grow their partnerships with brands, every brand must incorporate ...
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This Weeks Key Takeaways:

  • Selling second-hand products has the potential to attract customers in ways that one-off, sustainability-oriented products haven’t
  • Brands and retailers looking to increase profits can benefit from launching resale programs that include returns, as they can provide cost savings starting point
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This Weeks Key Takeaways:

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This Weeks Key Takeaways:

  • Changes at The RealReal present opportunities for others in the resale market.
  • Brands will need to treat emissions with the same level of importance as financial performance, as poor performance may have negative market consequences, similar to financial underperformance, down the road.
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What is the state of resale today? Which brands are leading the industry? Where exactly is the industry heading? And … how fast?

In this episode of Let’s Talk Resale, we discuss Trove’s inaugural resale Index, a report that takes a step back, assesses our progress so far, and anticipates what’s to come for the circular economy. Our discussion touches on the construction of the report and reflects on key findings with industry exper...
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W. David Marx, author of the book Status and Culture was highlighted In a New York Times Style piece this week, on the evolving status symbol of luxury goods. According to Marx, “Someone carrying a beat-up Hermès bag suggests they are not simply wearing it because of its label. I don’t even care if it gets beat up, because I’m not using this for status marking.”

As the article points out, the growing resale market has made these on...
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Jacklyn Wells, a 19-year-old Depop seller posted a TikTok in late January showing off “the most insane thrift haul.” The TikTok quickly went negative, really negative with more than 5.9M views inciting a moral reaction that thrifting should be philanthropic not for profit. Jacklyn was called "greedy, lazy, and parasitic." I will spare you from the most aggressive comments but the controversy created quite a bit of debate on the eth...
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There are high expectations for resale as pointed out by The Guardian. Next-generation customers will seek out pre-owned items that will allow the fashion industry to automatically transform a 100+ year-old linear model into a circular model. This will not happen in a straight path, nor will it happen overnight. Today, we live in the wild west, where it’s hard to distinguish the positive forward momentum from the PR plays.

The Fast ...
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The secondhand luxury goods market grew 28% in 2022 to reach $45.21 billion, according to Bain & Company and Fondazione Altagamma. This is 1.3X higher than the growth rate for new luxury goods. For a related growth stat, eBay shared they saw a 24 percent increase in circular fashion businesses joining their site last year, and searches for pre-loved clothing on eBay UK have skyrocketed 1600 percent since last summer. This is li...
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J. Crew launched its resale program, J Crew Always, with Thredup’s Resale as a Service (RaaS) last week, well-timed to be announced at NRF’s Big Show. Given the existing Madewell program with ThredUP, it wasn’t surprising to see J Crew enter resale in this way.

According to WWD, “The J. Crew items already listed on ThredUp are not part of the J. Crew Always initiative.” Historically it has been a marketplace limitation to pull in th...
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Rent the Runway’s deal with Amazon is a five-alarm fire for brands such as Rag & Bone and Tory Burch. RTR sells pre-owned branded fashion and its own branded pieces on Amazon at significant discounts. RTR started with selling via Thredup the Sacks Off Fifth and now Amazon. Their stock was rewarded, but this is short term, but it’s hard not to see the desperation with long-term concerns for the company.

@Sucharita Kodali, princip...
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Don't Buy This Jacket - A Story with Former Patagonia’s Nellie Cohen and Trove’s Founder Andy Ruben

The birth and evolution of Patagonia’s Worn Wear is a story of confronting the hard truths about our linear business models that overproduction is ultimately unsustainable. It is a story of innovation through iteration baked with intentionality, failing forward and trying again. As Nellie and Andy recount these early years, the audien...
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It’s been a week of 2023 prediction soup. Nearly all the prediction lists included Resale–some predictions driven by younger customer preferences, some by value in difficult economic times, and some for sustainability-oriented shoppers. Learn how these predictions can be acted on for your brand in this week's Resale Edit.
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Happy New Year, and Welcome to what is sure to be a dynamic 2023 for Resale.

Let’s start with Glossy’s article, The state of resale in 2023: Competition, consolidation and a push for profitability. The piece assessed players from The RealReal to Treet and summarized with “twin challenges of an overcrowded market and the growing expectation for profitability will be difficult to overcome.”

A critical element is missing in this assessm...
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5 Resale Predictions for 2023 As the news slows down for the Holidays and New Year, we’d love to share our resale predictions for 2023.

Let’s start with how the end of this year. 2022 will be the year Branded Resale became table stakes. We went from 31 to 120+ brands with dedicated resale programs. There is no going back.

Brands didn’t start the shift, customers did as pioneers such as The RealReal, Poshmark, Rent the Runway, and Th...
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As Sourcing Journal writes, Money Keeps Flowing Into Secondhand Shopping. Yes, and this week we will cover Vestiaire’s $80M in a credit line and Beni’s raise of $4M. There is a lot of talk about how secondhand is accelerated by the economy or this or that. The reality is, shopping secondhand allows us to get nicer things for less money. Value is about as basic as it gets for what appeals to customers and secondhand delivers this in...
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