Remake, remodel

Communicating complex messages about circularity and sustainability in fashion to an online audience is not easy, but the imperatives to get it right are overwhelming, says James Barlow, VP UKI at Akeneo.

Second hand clothing is as old as retail and was driven entirely by cost; if you couldn’t afford it, you bought it second hand. Now, a whole bunch of other trends have come together to give a massive boost to the pre-loved market, trends that might seem at first to be unrelated.

The headline grabber is the rising concerns about the environmental and the impact of shoppers’ consumption on the planet, as well as ethical costs of the consumer goods industry worldwide, from cloth and fabric production and manufacturing methods, to supply chain speed and mode of transport, and to retail and returns. And lastly, to final disposal.

Greenpeace says that clothing production has doubled in the past 15 years, resulting in £140m worth of clothing ending up in landfill each year in the UK alone. Meanwhile the British Fashion Council recently reported that 23million returned fashion items in the UK alone that were sent to landfill or incinerated last year generated 750,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. Add to this more recent headlines that are now appearing to show that landfill has its own environmental impacts, in terms of chemicals leeching into water courses and making potentially agricultural land unusable and there is no doubt the problem is both complex and sizable.

Lately, in the face of inflation in the cost-of-living crisis, second hand has returned to its roots, with charity shops reporting a huge lift in sales, bolstered by a boom in donations as consumers had a big clear out during lockdown.

The global apparel resale market will grow by 85.5% between 2022 and 2026 to $338.4 billion, according to GlobalData. The market will grow x 3 faster than the global apparel market overall, x 2 in Europe compared to x 4 in Latin America and Africa x 8 in the US. The company also reports that In Europe, the market grew by 30% in 2022.

According to Statista, in the UK, there are over 3,800 stores that specialise in selling second-hand goods. While by number of stores, the sector is dominated by smaller, independent players, now mainstream retailers are getting in on the action, in response to their customers’ concerns over sustainability.

There are other factors at play that may be secondary but are very a part of the customer’s life story and that brands, whether they are wholly or partially into circular retail, to build and communicate compelling content. We are on a nostalgia trip when it comes to old movies and pop music from the classic decades of the 70s and 80s, and consumers also want to embrace the look. This is a form of self-expression that reflects the growth of populism across the globe.

Re-wear on the rise

This clash of trends has spawned different models that all sit under the circularity banner. The emphasis is on the re- prefix in the world of second hand. Clothes that can be sold as second-hand, or donated to charities, are referred to as rewear. Or if the clothes are not suitable for rewear the can be reused as other products, such as a new item of apparel or cleaning cloths. Or the items can be shredded into fibres and then recycled to make for example insulation materials.

The point is that items no longer hang in wardrobes but keep moving, or even never make it into the wardrobe in the first place, in the case of rental, a market that rose to prominence in the UK in 2020 during the pandemic. According to Statista, between 2021 and 2026, rental apparel worldwide will grow to around $7.5bn, although UK consumers have embraced rental less enthusiastically than in the US.

Online, promoting second-hand products alongside new ones requires a different approach to how products are discovered and described. This is made much easier if the Product Information Management system is able to easily access the right product data inherited from a trusted foundation rather than having to re-create it. And that trusted foundation must be cloud-based, which provides certainty that files are always up to date and easily accessible, and can be deployed quickly. A central solution that controls all products and descriptors also ensure that the old product catalogue information or outdated brand messages are stripped out.

Merchandisers and marketers are thus able to work independently, emphasising their unique skills, but without clashing because they are working from a common data set. In this way, they have the freedom to be creative in their ranging, product descriptors, promotions and communications, to build exceptional product experiences to optimise customer experiences, and are freed from the burden of checking content for consistency and accuracy.

Components to create product data studios, central records of all product information accessible on a unified platform to all teams, can now be composed rather than imposed by the limitations of legacy data. And because everything is in the cloud, access to specialist apps such as onboarding information from suppliers, user reviews, search and product merchandising, is immediate.

The benefits are all about the bottom line – communications that complement the customer’s second-hand story build loyalty. And once the tedious data cleaning jobs are removed, staff productivity rises, measurable against sales and conversion. And returns are reduced, because the pitch to the customer is richer, more accurate and more personalised around product, packaging and delivery.

Ultimately, brands are now equipped with the tools to bring second hand into the mainstream where ‘new to me’ can generate as much if not more excitement than ‘new new.’ The second hand is the one that breathes new life into this once niche market.