Madewell and ThredUp’s new store chases second-hand wave

Madewell, part of the J.Crew Group, and online thrift store ThredUp are trialling a second-hand only store in Brooklyn which extends the two firms’ used jeans e-commerce, Madewell Forever; the effort follows the rising tide of pre-owned fashion.

Why it matters

Second-hand shopping isn’t new, but the scale offered by new services like ThredUp in the US and Depop in Europe has opened up a new channel for fashion retailers under pressure to clean up their environmental record and become more sustainable.

The offer

• A Circular Store, as the pop up is known, is a marketing and education exercise for the partnership, but where consumers can buy pre-owned Madewell items for between $10 and $40.
• The store also features a repairs desk where people can either have the life of their clothes extended or learn mending skills.

The context

Ahead of the pandemic, the second-hand market was becoming big business for companies like ThredUp and Depop – which was acquired by Etsy this year – and was opening up new opportunities for luxury brands to bring new consumers, often younger, into the brand experience with genuine items. For these young players like ThredUp, the big opportunity now lies in an emerging resale-as-a-service platform business.

The future is bright. Riding a new acceptance of second-hand items among consumers, spurred by a new recognition that they need to buy more sustainably, brands at the higher end of the market, like Patagonia and Levis, are expanding resale. Meanwhile IKEA, the furniture retailer, is testing reselling furniture in the Nordics.

Be smart

While brands are shrewdly following consumer demand, serious questions arise around how the fashion business model needs to change from selling more and more each quarter to selling less without tanking the business.

Sourced from the Wall Street Journal