Every time we speak to brands and retailers about resale, an important part of their decision-making journey is to create a resale business case for their internal stakeholders. We’ve taken this knowledge and created a 3-part series about the top ways to build this business case. Part 1 is dedicated to sustainability. Part 2 is supply chain and business operations. Part 3 is all about marketing and ecommerce.
In a very crowded direct-to-consumer market, resale is a desirable way for brands to differentiate, diversify their product line, and engage with consumers. Not only does resale help brands reach a wider audience, but it also helps fortify their relationship with current customers. It’s proven to be an all-around exciting and mutually beneficial tool for enhancing customer experience and engagement.
Here are 5 ways resale can support your marketing and ecommerce goals.
- Branded resale creates a superior experience for customers.
First and foremost, launching an integrated resale channel allows brands to take their resale experience in-house, both in terms of revenue and community building. When transactions happen on other platforms, brands have no control over user experience or access to customer data. It’s not the best experience for customers either: sellers have to take product photography (one of the biggest challenges in recommerce), write custom product descriptions, and navigate different resale apps. Buyers, using a less than ideal user experience, hunt through thousands or millions of products (and ads) to find what they are looking for.
Recurate-powered resale programs, on the other hand, make resale easy and enjoyable so that customers return to the brand’s ecosystem when they’re ready to buy or sell pre-owned. Thanks to Recurate’s seamless tech, sellers simply peruse their order history and choose an item to list. From there, photos and product descriptions automatically pull through from the brand’s catalog, making the listing process a breeze. Plus, sellers earn more through the brand than they would through third-party sites. - Resale helps brands reach a wider audience without major ad spend.
After launching 30+ branded resale programs, we‘ve seen that around 50% of resale shoppers are new to the brand. The lower price points and clear sustainability values draw in new, and often younger, customers who can now access a brand’s products and experience the quality firsthand — that exposure is priceless. As more and more consumers become comfortable with secondhand shopping, having an integrated resale channel can only help brands increase customer acuisition in a market that is largely moving toward sustainability. - Resale is a cost-effective customer re-engagement tool.
Creating an integrated resale channel is an effective way to re-engage lapsed customers. Resale diversifies a brand’s product line (without any new product) and presents new ways for customers to get involved by buying, selling, and learning how to care for their products. If a customer is not in the mood or place to shop, they might still be interested in shedding some layers and earning store credit. At the same time, providing unique items at a more accessible price point might inspire a lapsed customer to shop. Simplifying the resale process allows customers to shed what they don’t want and find a product they do want. Brands can additionally build out automatic email flows to streamline their outreach and further re-engagement. For example, anniversary emails sent out one year post-purchase can remind customers to come back to resell or shop the latest drop of pre-owned products. - Resale opens up new opportunities for creative communications.
Launching a resale channel creates space for deeper conversations with customers — around values, sustainability, and personal style — and presents new opportunities to connect. We encourage our brand partners to embrace these unique resale “hotspots” and fill any lulls in communications with resale messaging. For example, closet cleanout season isn’t typically on a brand’s marketing calendar. However, with a resale channel, brands can engage customers and unlock the value sitting in their closets, giving them credit to spend later. Resale also opens the doors to partnerships with new ambassadors and creates opportunities for digital and in-person events related to product care and recrafting. Brands can utilize their Recurate-powered resale space for creative collections (e.g., ambassador closet cleanouts or recrafted collections) while also dedicating space in their physical retail locations for pre-owned products. Together, these efforts can help communicate brand values across customer touchpoints while continuing to build a community around circularity. - Resale builds brand loyalty and illustrates product quality.
Launching a resale channel is a testament to the quality, durability, and timelessness of a brand’s product line. Customers can shop confidently for higher ticket items knowing their investment will retain its value for the long run and that they’ll be able to recoup some of the initial cost by returning to resell. Also, customers can rest assured they’re buying quality, authentic items from a Recurate-powered marketplace, as every listing is checked and approved before going live. According to a McKinsey resale report, “The ability of a brand to sustain and engage in a secondary market reinforces a desirable aura of craftsmanship, durability, and sustainability: four in ten buyers consider that brand participation will raise the market value of their own pre-owned products.” Plus, it feels good to shop from brands that offer resale and are clearly committed to sustainability.
Beyond the community-building benefits, resale also helps brands reach business objectives and further sustainability initiatives. For help building your company’s business case or to learn more about launching a Recurate-powered resale program, get in touch at recurate.com/contact-us.
