Recommerce thrives 💰

We have written a lot about the growth of e-commerce, including top companies to watch out for in 2021. With the act of purchasing, however, comes the act of decluttering. For all the online stores that revel in new items, reselling businesses (or recommerce) are growing more popular by the day. More and more people are starting to realize the negative impact of fast fashion and are looking at alternative ways to buy and sell used apparel in order to be more sustainable. In fact, the second-hand apparel market is expected to triple in value from $29BN in 2019 to $80BN in 2029 according to research by resale company ThredUp. But reselling isn’t just about fashion items, as consumer electronics reselling is thriving as hot items like the Sony PlayStation and Xbox consoles have been flying off the shelves and reselling platforms are the only place to get one, even if the prices are much higher than retail value.

Pre-owned sneakers
The hype for trendy pre-owned sneakers and other streetwear has been frenzied for some time, equivalent to trading cards and collectible figurines.  Fun fact: the most expensive pair of Air Jordan 1s sold for $560,000 in 2020.

• GOAT is a unicorn startup that offers a marketplace for buying and selling secondhand sneakers and streetwear. Aside from being backed by Footlocker, it recently secured a strategic investment from Group Artemis, the parent company of French luxury brand Kering Group.
• StockX is the archnemesis of GOAT, founded two years later, in 2012, to offer a place to buy and sell secondhand sneakers and streetwear. Its valuation and revenue both nearly doubled in 2020 after two rounds of funding as well as the company’s venture into products outside of apparel, including electronics. 

Apparel resell

• Poshmark can be called the poster child for the success of recommerce, merging selling in general with the community building element of reselling used items. After its IPO in January, its stock shot up 140% but has since leveled to $20 above its IPO pricing on February 19. Most recently, Poshmark has announced its expansion into Australia as well as into the pet category, to jump into the booming pet care market. 
• Mercari is the Asian equivalent of Poshmark, born out of Tokyo, Japan. The community-powered shopping app for reselling items has been aggressively pushing its US expansion and even aired its first Super Bowl commercial this year.
• ThredUp is a marketplace that focuses on reselling apparel after receiving items in bulk from its users. The San Francisco-based company filed confidentially at the end of last year for an IPO but has still not confirmed the final IPO date.
• Vinted is the online marketplace for selling used apparel and hails from Lithuania. One of the earlier companies to promote a circular economy, it launched in the US in 2013 and joined the unicorn club in 2019.
• Depop is the UK-born community marketplace that focuses on the Gen Z population, with its Instagram style interface and influencer-driven concept. The company has raised 5 rounds of funding.