The verdict is in: Retailers know consumers want to shop resale and they’re willing to invest the resources to help them do so.

Nearly three in four (74%) retail execs say they already offer—or are open to offering—secondhand apparel to their customers, up 14 percentage points from 2020, according to ThredUp’s latest resale report with GlobalData.

What’s making the sell? The report, published today, predicts that the secondhand market in the US will double to $82 billion by 2026.

• In 2021, resale saw a 58% YoY bump in sales growth, the largest in half a decade. Plus, the report projects that half of secondhand $$ will come from online resale by 2024.

“A customer who may love a brand, but maybe can’t afford it new or maybe just wants to try it out and experiment, it may be an easy point of entry to buy used,” Anthony Marino, president of ThredUp, told Retail Brew.

Marino added that resale is now a deliberate sales strategy, given that 78% of executives say their customers are already shopping via the channel—up from 62% in 2020.

Under review: For the 26% of retail execs that aren’t set on resale, the report highlighted four perceived barriers to entry: 1) getting stakeholders to buy in 2) a lack of proven return on investment 3) misalignment with brand narrative and 4) cannibalization of new product sales.

• However, concern in these four metrics all dropped from 2020 to 2021, probably helped by the fact that 84% of execs now say they understand the resale market more now than they did three years ago.

“They have a choice. Either they’re going to put their head in the sand and say, ‘Well, my customers are doing it anyway, but I’m going to act like if I ignore it, it will go away,’” Marino said. “Or they can say, ‘Hey, if customers are going to be trafficking in my brand’s product secondhand, I want to control that narrative. I want to control the experience.’”—KM

If you need more proof that investors are eyeing supply-chain and logistics companies, enter Fashinza.

The B2B fashion marketplace, which works to digitize the supply chain from design to delivery, announced today that it raised $100 million in a Series B funding round.

• The round, which included $60 million in equity and $40 million in debt, was led by Prosus Ventures and Westbridge and brings Fashinza’s total $$ raised since its founding in 2020 to $122.6 million.

Orderly fashion: The India-based company works with 250+ manufacturers and 200+ mid- to large-size brands in the US, Canada, India, and UAE, including Forever 21, Spencer’s, and Landmark Group.

It will use the new funding for supply-chain tech and to grow its footprint, expanding its operations within the US, Kiruba Shankar, Fashinza’s marketing lead, told Retail Brew—as it applies AI to address pain points within fashion manufacturing.

• Shankar said Fashinza has cut turnaround times to around 45 days, down from the typical 90–120 day range, by “monitoring the gaps” and speeding up things like fabric procurement or product design. And the company notes it’s reduced inventory costs by 25% for some partners.

It’s also dropped minimum order quantities to as low as 50, so brands “can experiment” and boost their orders later on based on sales or projections, Shankar said.

• Plus, by tracking every activity on the manufacturing line on a dashboard, Fashinza helps brands and manufacturers get data in real time, he added.

“Basically, we have taken [on] a big challenge where we are trying to solve the problems in the supply chain one by one,” Shankar said.—EC

David’s Bridal is on a mission to meet its customers at whatever point they might be in life. After tapping into weddings and proms, the retailer decided to keep the celebrations going: It recently expanded Fifteen Roses, its quinceañera label that debuted last April, to include dresses for damas.

“When we looked at our junior assortment, we were really only servicing customers for prom and for homecoming,” CMO Nancy Viall told Retail Brew.

• There are more than 525,000 quinceañeras a year in the US, according to a 2019 study.

Out of the ordinary: Fifteen Roses is designed and produced in-house, with quinceañera dresses starting at $399 and its new damas collection at $99.95. Viall said that while the category ordinarily skews toward a higher price point, the retailer was able to keep the prices low by working in-house.

“For us, it’s really giving that customer who is middle America that value,” Viall explained. “We are vertically integrated, and we’re able to extend innovation and style and really have inclusiveness so that it’s not representing anyone’s line that you can get at all these different boutiques.”

David’s Bridal also hopes to stand out by becoming a one-stop-shop as it grows the category.

“The one advantage that we have, quite frankly, is that we are a brick-and-mortar retailer,” Viall said, adding that beyond the dresses, it pulls together handbags and jewelry and shoes to “really outfit [the customer] and her party head to toe, which I think is really critical.”

• Fifteen Roses initially debuted across 31 David Bridal stores in the US, and is now in 79 retail locations in 12 states, she noted.

Click here to read more.—JS

Today’s top retail reads.

Shout it from an open letter: A rundown of seven recent activist-investor battles in retail. (Retail Dive)

Role models: From Savage x Fenty to Universal Standard, companies are investing in inclusive mannequins. (Glossy)

All you can eat: In more evidence that people are back to living like it is 2019, it appears that buffets are back. (The Boston Globe)

Mobile app strategy: After noticing a shift from desktop to mobile traffic, clothing brand Scotch & Soda went all in on a turnkey app solution—which now owns a 23% share of their total e-commerce revenue. Learn how they got there with NewStore.*

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What happened in the world of retail this week in…1873 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

Skinny, straight, boot-cut, wide-leg…We’re on repeat until we’re blue in the face:

• On May 15, 1997, Amazon went public at $18 a share—and its S-1 touted the company as “the leading online retailer of books.” A quarter of a decade later, its stock price now tops $2,200, and it’s basically the leading retailer of everything.
• On May 15, 2017, Rue21, a teen favorite, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• On May 19, 2001, Apple opened its first stores ever, in McLean, Virginia, and Glendale, California. Steve Jobs called it back then, noting in a release that: “Rather than just hear about megahertz and megabytes, customers can now learn and experience the things they can actually do with a computer, like make movies, burn custom music CDs, and publish their digital photos on a personal website.”
• And on May 20, 1873, we said hello to jeans. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis obtained a patent for adding rivets to men’s work pants.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Bask (Suncare) in supply-chain chaos
• Klarna rolls out its first social-shopping tool
• What retailers get right—and wrong—about Gen Z