How Christy Dawn Proved That Resale Has Better Volumes Than Brick-And-Mortar
Archive allows brands to launch customizable resale platforms with a number of business models, including brand-owned inventory and a peer-to-peer marketplace. For Christy Dawn, Archive was appealing both because of its portfolio of existing ethical brand partners and its elevated online experience.
Christy Dawn recognizes resale as its own marketing channel that serves seasonal messaging and opens the door to more people wearing the brand. Most recently, during Secondhand September, Christy Dawn collaborated with Archive to increase store credit for peer-to-peer sellers to 120% of the product value to drive shoppers to the mainline website. The promotion helped drive a 70% increase in product listings on Regenerates and a 123% increase in month over month sales.
By using Archive’s advanced merchandising tool, Christy Dawn will be able to make the shopping experience on Regenerates even more like its mainline website. That includes creating collections of preowned products and running campaigns to promote resale.
Christy Dawn was founded in 2014 with sustainability embedded in its ethos. Its dresses were originally made with deadstock fabric, and now the company collaborates with Oshadi Collective to source regenerative cotton and produce garments that are made to last. Christy Dawn launched Regenerates in March 2024 to expand its customer base and build a community around preloved styles.
Regenerates started with listings of brand-owned inventory as well as items that founder Christy selected from her own closet. From there, the peer-to-peer marketplace opened, and now makes up 78% of resale. “Peer-to-peer really has a life of its own,” says Sam Pick, Christy Dawn’s director of e-commerce. “It didn’t take long for people to start selling their pieces online. It’s opening the door to more people wearing Christy Dawn.”
Because Christy Dawn dresses are created with regenerative fabrics, they sell for a premium price. By participating in Regenerates, customers can purchase Christy Dawn dresses, blouses, skirts, and other garments at a lower price point and still be part of extending the life cycle of the clothes. “It was really a no-brainer to create a bigger community through an inclusive offering,” Pick says. It was also a way to take ownership of resale after the brand realized its potential with its dresses being sold on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
In addition to extending Christy Dawn’s mission around sustainability, Regenerates has proven to be a viable income stream for the brand. At the end of 2023, the rent on Christy Dawn’s store in Los Angeles went up, and the team decided it didn’t make sense to keep the location open given the rising costs. Regenerates was launched as a potential replacement for brick-and-mortar sales, and has since surpassed store net revenue by 31%.
“Archive feels like an elevated experience. We didn’t want Regenerates to be just a secondhand shop; these are preloved and archived pieces that deserve attention. Other brands that were on Archive that had the same mentality.”
At Archive, we partner with brands to build programs that meet their unique business objectives. Whether you already have a vision or are just starting to think about circularity, we’d love to hear from you!
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