Trove CEO discusses how to help brands cash in on resale
NEW YORK — After seeing young shoppers flock to thrift stores and online sites for used clothes, a growing number of fashion companies want to take back control.
But running a resale business is complicated, so some big iconic fashion brands like Levi’s and Patagonia are turning to Trove, a tech startup that handles the logistics of taking back merchandise and preparing it for resale. That includes cleaning the millions of items of clothing and shipping them in the label’s own packaging.
Customers of these brands trade in gently used items in a store or by mail in exchange for a gift card. Shoppers looking for second-hand goods can find them showing up on the individual website, and can expect to save 40% to 50%.
Trove now faces increasing competition from marketplaces like ThredUp and Poshmark, both of which went public this year.
AP interviewed Trove’s CEO and founder Andy Ruben, Walmart’s chief sustainability officer before he launched the resale site.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Do you think most of the fashion industry will get into resale?
Any premium brand that makes beautiful designs will be in the resale space, every one of them that is relevant in around five years plus. Think about certified preowned cars. There was a moment where if you wanted to buy a used Lexus or a used Mercedes, you go to a used car lot. And when Lexus got into that business, they realized that if they offered that they could offer more value for customers whoare already owners. For customers that used to be in Honda, Toyota, this would give them an opportunity to be part of the brand and experience what a premium car could do.
Why would clothing brands want to get into resale?
Sixty-five percent of the customers whobuy goods ... have never bought from the brand before. Ten percent of those customers make a full-price brand purchase within six months, which means they not only get to experience a product, for example, a Lululemon product, but ... they fall in love. They don’t want to go back.
How did the pandemic accelerate shoppers’ interest in resale?
The pandemic accelerated in several ways. I think that the tailwind from greater e-commerce has helped this. Also, and importantly, the introspection that many of us did in this period, the kind of unexpected period of the last year and a half of what we do own and why we own these items and how we do shop and do we have items that we haven’t worn. Eighty percent of the average U.S. closet hasn’t been worn in the last 12 months.
How do you view competition?
We are enabling resale for brands. That is not the same whatsoever as being a marketplace. It is wholly different than a brand really owning the space.