Revolutionizing the Resale Market With Eon's Digital ID Technology
Eon's founder says her company's technology makes resale a breeze.
The resale market is poised for a seismic shift, thanks to Eon's pioneering technology. By creating a digital ID for each product, Eon's platform eliminates the typical entry barriers for many consumers and brands, paving the way for an easier, more seamless resale process.
The company describes the technology as a game-changer as it opens up new opportunities for customer engagement, brand protection and sustainable business models in the retail industry. Here,
Natasha Franck, chief executive officer and founder of Eon, shares insights about the platform, its capabilities and the technology's value proposition for retailers and brands.
WWD: How does Eon's platform work with digital IDs to make resale easier for consumers? Natasha Franck:
Eon pioneered “instant resale,” enabling brands to pre-program their products for easy resale across multiple marketplaces and channels. The digital and physical worlds are linked by our technology platform, enabling customers to simply scan a QR code or tap an NFC chip on an item with their smartphone to instantly identify it, authenticate it if applicable and upload it as a product listing to the brand's preferred resale destination — which may be the brand's own resale site or a thirdparty resale marketplace. This removes critical barriers and provides new benefits for customers, resellers and brands.
For a brand's customers, or resale sellers, Eon removes all the friction from the experience and makes it seamless to list secondhand items for resale in just a few clicks, without having to manually type in a product's name, size, color or other details like they would have had to in the past.
For resale shoppers, our platform brings trust and transparency to the experience, allowing them to instantly access information about an item's materials, provenance and ownership history. Eon enables them to verify immediately that a product is, in fact, authentic, giving them peace of mind.
For brands, Eon makes it possible to pre-program products for easy resale on their preferred resale destinations to maximize scale and increase profitability, while helping them protect their equity and reputation by preventing the sale of fakes.
We've also introduced the first and largest integrated app ecosystem, Eon Exchange, that brings together leading resale marketplaces and resale-as-aservice technology partners such as Vestiaire Collective, ThredUp, Archive and others. By connecting multiple providers and partners, the technology makes it easy for brands to launch resale channels that can increase revenue and customer lifetime value.
For example, one of Eon's brand partners, Chloé, launched an industry-first resale program last year where customers can return and sell pre-owned Chloé items using Eon's technology, facilitating instant resale on Vestiaire Collective. Chloé customers can simply scan a product that the brand has connected via a digital ID. Eon's technology enables them to instantly access product manufacturing information, care and repair instructions and a product authenticity certificate.
WWD: In simple terms, how does Eon's technology work? N.F.:
Eon's technology enables brands to turn their products into traceable, intelligent and interactive assets that generate value across their entire lifespans. Our SaaS platform creates a “digital passport” for every product that contains core attributes, images, descriptions and more, and links it to the physical product with a smart label such as a QR code or NFC chip. By enabling brands to capture, manage and share comprehensive item-level product data across the value chain, Eon powers a range of business capabilities and customer services such as policy compliance, authentication, resale, repair, recycling and more to increase the profitability of each product.
WWD: Many leading brands are focused on driving engagement and loyalty through personalization today. How do these post-purchase experiences enable that? N.F.:
Eon's technology enables brands to make their products interactive, so their customers can scan their garments to access personalized, branded web experiences. For example, brands can offer virtual styling and digital closet applications; loyalty programs and rewards, and rich content such as design and creation stories, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Every digital ID presents nearly infinite opportunities for brands to connect with consumers in personal and memorable ways across different media channels and partner collaborations and through different technologies.
In November, Balenciaga launched a capsule collection of T-shirts and hoodies that used Eon's technology to provide customers with exclusive access to a song by the London-based trip-hop group Archive. To listen to the track, wearers used their phone to scan an NFC chip the brand had embedded into the item's tag, and they couldn't share or access the song anywhere else.
Creating new media experiences facilitated by digital IDs and incorporating audio and video elements allows companies to extend their brand storytelling long after purchasing an item. And since digital IDs make resale instant and seamless, multiple owners can enjoy these types of experiences across a product's many life stages.
WWD: Counterfeiting remains a massive problem in fashion and retail, as underscored by the seizure of more than $1 billion worth of fake designer goods in New York this past November. How is Eon's technology helping address the issue? N.F.:
Our technology platform supports a range of authentication tools to enable companies to reduce counterfeiting and prevent fraud. For example, Eon supports verifiable QR codes, encrypted NFC chips, supply chain analysis, ML-powered receipt recognition and more. By enabling endto-end traceability, Eon gives brands and consumers the visibility they need — across supply chains, distribution networks and retail channels — to understand how and where a product was made and how it got to them. Brands can gather and use these item-level insights to help fight counterfeiting and theft and protect their brand reputation, while consumers can use them to authenticate, register and resell items with confidence.
WWD: In the EU and other regions, there is a considerable amount of legislation under consideration that could significantly change how fashion companies manage their supply chains and track products. If enacted into law, how would regulations affect brands? And what role would digital IDs play under these kinds of regulations? N.F.:
Both the Digital Product Passport (DPP) policy, which is expected to come into effect in the EU in the next few years, and The Fashion Act and Digital Care Label legislation, which may become law in the U.S., would require brands to disclose their supply chains and share item-level data with authorities and consumers.
For brands, it will be imperative to embed a digital ID into every product in order to comply with this level of required transparency in an efficient and scalable way. Forward-looking companies are already future-proofing their brands by giving every product they make a digital ID today. They're ensuring they'll be able to continue to successfully distribute, sell and resell inventory across the globe as these kinds of regulations are passed in different regions and countries. By using digital IDs to proactively make their supply chains transparent before these laws come into effect, these brands are also demonstrating their commitment to sustainability and other ESG values to consumers during a critical moment.
WWD: In what ways, apart from resale, do digital IDs help drive a more sustainable retail model? N.F.:
I believe digital IDs are the single biggest leverage point into a sustainable business model for commerce. With the potential to turn each physical product into a traceable, intelligent and value-generating asset, Eon enables brands to generate more revenue without producing more products and steward products through circular and sustainable life cycles.
WWD: What are some of the other brands Eon has partnered with? N.F.:
In addition to Balenciaga and Chloé, we've partnered with Coach, Gabriela Hearst, Mulberry, H&M, Target, Pangaia and dozens of other leading global brands, enabling them to achieve full traceability and offer all different kinds of interactive, postpurchase-experiences-for their customers.
For example, Gabriela Hearst wanted to emphasize the unique journey of each of its products, and Eon's platform enables the brand to tell a unique story about the design and production process behind each item, including detailed information about the mills and factory where the materials and finished product were made.
Coach's sustainable sub-brand, Coachtopia, wanted to enable customers to connect their product to their Coach account so they could easily access repair, regifting, trade-in and other circular services. Our technology made the connection seamless for customers and allowed Coach to deepen its customer relationships, particularly with the Gen Z shoppers who are attracted to Coachtopia's ethos of sustainability.
Pangaia is another brand partner that has leveraged Eon's technology to highlight the carbon footprint of its products and how consumers can lessen their climate impact by opting for a Pangaia product in favor of another option.