Re-commerce and circular fashion-tech company Recurate has released its first resale report — and a key insight shows that 74% of people across all major markets, ages, genders and socioeconomic status shop resale.
Of those who participated in the survey, mid-priced brands – which to Recurate include companies like Lululemon, Nike, Levi’s and J.Crew – were the most popular ones to shop with 64% of consumers buying secondhand items from this pricepoint. Fast fashion companies came in second, with 40% of shoppers, followed by luxury and designer brands coming in at 28% of consumers buying secondhand at the higher end.
The report also sectioned off respondents according to certain behaviors and demographics These include re-commerce shoppers (ages 21 to 40, female and suburban earning $30,000 or less), re-commerce sellers (ages 21 to 40, female and urban earning $50,000 to $100,000), the “circulars” (ages 18 to 40, female and urban earning $50,000 to $100,000, including freelancers) and “non-actives” (ages 41-plus, all genders and suburban earning less than $75,000). R
Recurate said the circulars are “shaping the future of fashion” — finding that 77% of these high-earning urbanites are shopping and selling pre-owned apparel at least once every two to three months. Many of them are flipping goods, with 48% buying to resell. Some 89% of this group would shop branded re-commerce, per the report.
Other insights include how categories stand up in resale and the benefits of branded resale.
“Putting this report together was a cool journey to see just how much customers are excited about resale, and want brands to engage with it truly, for a variety of reasons,” Karin Dillie, VP partnerships at Recurate, told FN in an interview. “I think one of the things that a lot of people think about are that people want to be more green and more sustainable. And that is definitely a driver. But also, there’s a huge value aspect where consumers will try resale at a lower price point to see the quality for themselves without having a large investment of buying new products.”
Adam Siegel CEO and co-founder of Recurate echoed this sentiment. “As someone who cares deeply about sustainability, I was surprised to see that the top two motivations for consumers to shop pre-owned items is the value and finding fun and unique items. “And, frankly, I think that’s awesome that the resale market allows people to do that at a lower price point and in a more sustainable way.”
This report follows Recurate’s most recent round of financing earlier this year. In May, the company secured $14 million in funding to power a new suite of services and integrations to serve its growing list of brand partners. This funding round was led by Jump Capital, and includes industry leaders Gradient Ventures, XRC Labs, Victress Capital, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund, and AngelList Early-Stage Quant Fund, as well as executives from Brooks Brothers, Chubbies, and Klaviyo, among others. The new investment brings Recurate’s total funding to over $17.5 million.
In January, Recurate signed with Steve Madden and Dolce Vita to launch their own respective peer-to-peer resale marketplaces. “Through Steve Madden’s Re-Booted and Dolce Vita’s Re:Vita, we want to make it incredibly easy for customers to buy and sell preloved products so that they stay out of landfills and in the closets of people who love them,” Gregg Meyer, chief sustainability officer at Steven Madden, told FN at the time. “It’s all in an effort to make the items we create last as long as possible –an effort that we hope galvanizes the industry as a whole.”
Founded in 2020, the company now works with over 50 brands in the fashion, accessories, outdoor, and footwear categories including Frye (The Frye Exchange) and Mara Hoffman (Full Circle Marketplace), and expects this number to grow to over 100 brand partners by the end of the year.
According to Recurate, the report was a culmination of two separate surveys. Conducted in March of 2022 by the company and social impact agency BBMG, the survey spoke to a mix of non-active and active recommerce participants including people who currently sell, buy, or do both. The report also includes global data from 11 markets around the world curated from GlobeScan’s 2021 Healthy and Sustainable Living survey, which polled approximately 1,000 people per market.
