Is Resale Fuelling Overconsumption? | BoF

Every week ultra-fast vogue model PrettyLittleThing drops tons of of recent merchandise, deploying a military of influencers to maintain prospects coming again for its newest kinds of cut-out clothes, crops and cargo pants — usually for little greater than the price of a cocktail.

Now it desires to assist them resell these hauls after they tire of them.

The brand new PrettyLittleThing Market app is a peach-toned variation on the label’s common bubblegum pink procuring expertise, the place customers can purchase and promote secondhand vogue.

For PrettyLittleThing, it’s a toehold within the fast-growing resale market and a riposte to criticism that the model promotes a harmful tradition of throwaway vogue that harms the surroundings and exploits employees.

Critics are calling it greenwashing.

“A model placing a resale platform on their web site after they’re promoting you this concept of fixed newness nonetheless, that’s not a optimistic change,” stated author and marketing consultant Aja Barber.

The talk performs right into a broader dialog in regards to the impact of resale as extra manufacturers pile into the market, selling it as a helpful strategy to offset the business’s impression whereas doing little to deal with underlying problems with overproduction and overconsumption.

That places resale liable to changing into a smokescreen to allow much more, and sooner, consumption.

Although the style business was initially leery that digitally native resale platforms would cannibalise gross sales, that’s modified quick alongside the market’s development. Within the US alone, the secondhand vogue market is anticipated to hit $57 billion by 2025, in response to BoF Insights information.

PrettyLittleThing is late to get in on the motion. Roughly 100 brands and retailers, together with H&M, Lululemon, Hugo Boss and Web-a-Porter, have launched their very own resale channels within the final two years, in response to BoF evaluation performed in Could. Selfridges said Friday it’s aiming for practically half of its gross sales to return from merchandise that comprise recycled supplies or from channels like resale or rental by 2030.

Most consignment websites have yet to prove they can turn a profit, however manufacturers have embraced the format as a strategy to drive engagement, construct loyalty and sign dedication to sustainability with buzzy consumer-facing launches.

PrettyLittleThing stated its market is a response to buyer demand for a strategy to give outdated garments a brand new lease of life and earn cash alongside the way in which. The model has been working to burnish its sustainability credentials since a scandal over labour abuses in dad or mum firm Boohoo Group’s provide chain in 2020.

Resale is a central pillar of round vogue — an more and more mainstream technique to deal with the business’s local weather impression by guaranteeing merchandise are saved in circulation for so long as doable and recycled on the finish of their life.

The jury’s nonetheless out on whether or not resale can really ship on these lofty ambitions.

Thus far, most manufacturers’ forays into the market are so small they don’t even present up as a line merchandise on steadiness sheets. Many provide retailer credit score for shoppers utilizing their platforms, incentivising a brand new buy for each pre-loved merchandise put again into circulation.

The consequence is usually a bit like “offsetting carbon emissions,” stated Brett Staniland, a mannequin and sustainable vogue editor. “It’s a guilt free procuring journey the place we will do no matter we wish; we will proceed to overproduce as a lot as we wish.”

And the way shoppers really interact with these platforms stays fuzzy. A December survey by French luxurious resale platform Vestiaire Collective discovered its prospects principally store the location as a substitute of shopping for new and say they use it to purchase dearer, however fewer objects. However US rival The RealReal’s most up-to-date resale report discovered prospects are churning by way of merchandise extra shortly, with the variety of objects purchased after which offered on once more on the location doubling because the begin of the pandemic.

“If we try to get individuals to devour secondhand on the similar price they devour quick vogue we’re going to run into hassle,” stated Barber.

That’s to not dismiss the worth of resale; reusing and recycling garments already within the combine is is a vital a part of the answer. However solely when coupled with the far more uncomfortable problem of constructing and consuming much less new stuff to start with.

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