Sustainability-first brands like Patagonia have taken their commitment to reuse to the furthest extreme by creating an entire ecommerce experience dedicated to allowing their customers to sell used products to one another. When the Worn Wear platform came out in 2020, the brand was criticized for their crazy idea of inviting their customers to keep their products for longer and resell them or buy used products instead of new ones. Now many other fashion retailers have similar platforms as this has become a trend across retail.
This week IKEA announced a similar idea they will be testing in a few European markets to create their own online store to allow customers to sell IKEA furniture to one another. I anticipate it will be hugely popular and hopefully come to other markets later this year. In the process, it may help this reselling trend catch on for brands in even more categories. Imagine being able to resell toys, or electronics or other home goods this way. You’re probably thinking we already have a way to do that with eBay or Craigslist, right?
Having the original manufacturer do it could offer some fascinating benefits, though. Imagine reselling a LEGO set where someone could buy it used and LEGO could separately send them a handful of pieces that might be missing so the set would be complete and a PDF of the instructions to build it. Or you could resell a webcam without accessories, and they would be added automatically for the buyer. There are many practical reasons, such as missing parts, why perfectly good items end up thrown away or in storage. This is one problem branded reselling platforms could solve perfectly.
