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There’s no question that online shopping has experienced significant growth over the last decade, particularly when it comes to footwear and apparel purchases. Even so, e-commerce makes up just 16% of total retail sales in the United States, highlighting the ongoing importance of curated in-person shopping experiences.
Resale is no exception to this rule. Secondhand shopping, after all, rose to popularity with brick-and-mortar thrift stores where shoppers searched for hidden treasures buried in endless aisles of donated garments. Meanwhile, platforms like Facebook Marketplace have proven that local, peer-to-peer networking is also an avenue for secondhand purchases. That’s why, in addition to our online resale infrastructure, Archive also offers a number of tools that facilitate in-person sales.
Most recently, we built two new tools that enable buyers and sellers to engage in a peer-to-peer resale ecosystem local to their neighborhood. Through our buyer-seller chat feature, buyers can ask sellers detailed questions about the item they’ve listed—a sofa, for example—and coordinate a time and place to meet up so that the buyer can collect the item in person. Buyers also have the ability to sort and filter their online browsing session based on item location, which allows them to search only for items that are within driving distance for pickup.
These new features are particularly useful for companies looking to set up a brand-owned resale program for oversized items like furniture that are difficult for individual sellers to ship on their own. The chat and local browsing functions make it so that shoppers on both sides of the transaction can manage the logistics in the way that suits them best.
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Many of our brand partners have also embraced resale in their brick-and-mortar stores. The North Face, which recently opened a new store in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, has a dedicated section for Renewed gear. Product offerings include both secondhand sportswear, as well as items from REMADE, a collection one-of-a-kind, hand-repaired of items like puffer jackets and fleece layers.
Diane Von Furstenberg, meanwhile, experienced great success when it marketed its resale program in stores in April. The awareness campaign—which included video marketing in store windows and signage —led to an increase in monthly sales, and DVF has since kept up a secondhand ReWrap section in its store in New York City’s Meatpacking district.
In addition to The North Face and DVF, ten other Archive brand partners—including Maje, Sandro, and Ulla Johnson—either sell or have sold pre-loved items in stores or at events. Earlier this year, M.M. LaFleur hosted an in-store event with a stylist who brought her own pre-loved items to sell alongside M.M.LaFleur Second Act merchandise.
These activations are effective because they’re an avenue for introducing shoppers to existing resale programs, which drives traffic to online platforms as well. In-person resale also fulfills the “discovery” aspect of secondhand shopping that consumers often crave, and lower price points also welcome shoppers that might otherwise not fit a premium brand into their budget.
Archive technology enables brands to seamlessly sell secondhand items in store, driving increased sell through and overall customer awareness. Interested in implementing a brick-and-mortar resale model? Contact us here.
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