After seeing young shoppers flock to thrift stores and online sites for used clothes, a growing number of fashion companies want to take back control.
But running a resale business is complicated, so some big iconic fashion brands like Levi’s, Eileen Fisher and Patagonia are turning to Trove, a tech startup that handles the logistics of taking back merchandise and preparing it for resale. That includes cleaning the millions of items of clothing and shipping them in the label’s own packaging.
Customers of these brands trade in gently used items in a store or by mail in exchange for a gift card. Shoppers looking for second-hand goods can find them showing up on the individual website, and can expect to save 40% to 50%.