Recommerce: A New Way to Shop Green

There's a unique joy to finding a pre-loved item that would have otherwise been out of reach. Whether thrifting or going through resale websites, these kinds of discoveries have always been delightful and help customers feel like they found something truly special.

There was a time when making these discoveries meant braving the pages of eBay and auctioning for the super-unique item we hoped to snag. Today, in a world engulfed in out-of-stock notifications, supply chain issues, and environmental and sustainability concerns, recommerce has emerged as a viable solution that has the interest of consumers and should have the attention of brands that are able to participate.

What is Recommerce?

For the uninitiated, “recommerce” specifically refers to a subset of the e-commerce market focused on reselling used consumer goods. It’s becoming an increasingly popular practice in industries such as apparel, luxury items and home goods. Every year, new verticals such as sporting goods, consumer electronics and more are implementing recommerce strategies. As a commerce trend, recommerce is expected to generate up to $33 billion in revenue by the end of 2022. Sustainable goods have been taking up a larger market share and the economy has felt more volatile than ever. As a result, consumers are looking at greener, more affordable options to meet their needs. Recommerce meets this demand on all fronts.

Recommerce Benefits the Planet (and the Consumer!)

Sustainability has become a top priority for millennial shoppers. In fact, 45 percent of them say they're not interested in buying from nonsustainable brands and retailers. Millennials make up a massive demographic of buyers looking for options that are overall safer for the planet. Brands should be seeing this as an opportunity to update their strategy and focus on building brand loyalty over time. According to the World Economic Forum, clothing production has just about doubled in the last 20 years. For example, consumers picked up 60 percent more clothes in 2014 than in 2000, but kept them for only half as long. Showcasing authenticity and proving brand investment in sustainable practices isn’t just the right thing to do — it has a tangible impact on the bottom line for the right reasons.

Affordable Access to Higher Quality Products

A unique benefit of recommerce is that it gives consumers a chance to purchase luxury goods at a less hefty sticker price or simply out of reach at net new cost. Larger items such as furniture or scarcity-based goods like art or designer clothing drops are more often experiencing second lives through recommerce platforms such as 1st Dibs and The RealReal. These options enable a whole new subset of consumers to access luxury items, as the resale value of a lot of those items tend to stay fairly stagnant. That price can even rise with items such as fine art and vintage home goods. The main challenge to luxury brands, in turn, is needing to control recommerce in order to maintain brand equity. Even so, by partnering with third-party sites and offering authenticity guarantees, these brands benefit from reaching new audiences that would otherwise be priced out.

Going Beyond Clothes and Furniture

Supply chain has invariably become an influencing factor in recommerce. Chains are tightening globally and resources are becoming harder to secure. Recommerce eases these pain points for the consumer in several important ways. Companies like 1800Wheelchair.com have been able to place wheelchairs in the hands of people in need by creating a recommerce market for the medical field.

In combating electronics waste, people are finding new uses for out-of-date mobile phones or computers. Similarly, these brands are combating supply issues by unearthing reusable resources in older model electronics that are no longer being widely used by consumers. In some cases, the electronics recommerce market has enabled exciting new experiments by selling wholly new gadgets made of these old parts, driving an entirely fresh market with compounding benefits.

Brands Are Putting Their Own Spin on Recommerce

Some brands have already begun incorporating recommerce into their overall brand strategy. lululemon, a brand that focuses on reaching consumers with a wellness mindset, has created “Like New” reselling options on its website. These options stress cleanliness and quality standards to reassure customers that might be wary of secondhand products, and assure their customers that anything that doesn’t meet their quality standards is responsibly recycled. This creates a type of two-pronged sustainability approach. Meanwhile, Levi’s has launched a SecondHand program, which puts emphasis on the longevity of its denim and doubles down on the “vintage cool” that makes the brand stand out in the apparel industry. Big names like these are just a couple examples of brands that are investing in reselling, and it's only a matter of time before even more recognizable household brand names make the jump.

Recommerce in Metrics

The benefits and value of recommerce is already echoing across the entire market. Trove is seeing significant rounds of funding for their reseller startups as much as $70 million. thredUp has reported that over 233 million consumers say they're willing to purchase secondhand when given the chance in a straightforward marketplace. It also reported that recommerce is expected to grow by 127 percent by 2026, 3x faster than the whole apparel market. That double-digit growth could reach an $82 billion market share. Reports from the Asian market also show massive numbers, claiming up to 92 percent of consumers have purchased secondhand, like-new products from everyday sellers. Through this lens, it's more viable to look at recommerce as less of a trend and more of a genuine consumer shift in the way people shop.

What Should Brands Be Doing?

If your brand hasn’t already, it should be looking into ways that it can incorporate recommerce into its digital experience. There are already countless examples of how this can look — from REI’s dedicated website sections for secondhand apparel or Patagonia’s inspiring marketing campaign encouraging people to “not buy new,” there are dozens of ways to weave your brand’s recommerce strategy into the customer buying experience. However, the most important element above all is authenticity. Don’t force a recommerce message if the brand can’t actually deliver on it. Too many brands have utilized the language of sustainability only to be called out down the line for not having any actual initiative behind the words.

Jenny Gomez is the vice president of marketing for Fusion at Lucidworks, which specializes in the Connected Experience Cloud, making it easier for companies to connect their data and insights across customer touchpoints.