The resale boom is well-documented, but perhaps nothing captures just how the pace has surged in the last 18 months better than The Recommerce 100, a list by ThredUp that tracks and rates the brands that have the most items listed in their online resale stores:

• Among the top 100 resale programs, 72 were launched in 2022 and 2023.
• Only seven were launched before 2021.

Brands that opened online resale stores in 2023 alone include J.Crew, Kate Spade, and Canada Goose.

It’s undeniably a trend, but some of the trendiest brands have yet to introduce resale programs, including Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel. Those brands, and others on the resale sidelines, see their products sell briskly on third-party resale platforms like TheRealReal, Mercari, and eBay.

So why are they still holdouts? Will they get to the party fashionably late—or snub resale altogether?

Swatch what happens: Swatch Group AG, which owns brands including Omega, Longines, and Breguet, weighed in recently.

“Swatch plans to stay out of secondhand market,” a Bloomberg headline pronounced in December.

“Why should we mix ourselves into the market of used watches?” Nick Hayek, CEO of Swatch, told Bloomberg. “This is a market that is regulating themselves.”

Andy Ruben, founder and executive chairman of resale solutions platform Trove, found the assertion “a bit surprising,” he told us.

“That point of view is inconsistent with the millions of data points that we have across the brands that are fairly successful and relevant including Canada Goose and Patagonia and Arc’teryx and Lululemon and Levi’s,” said Ruben, referring to brands with resale programs.

Ruben compared the Swatch stance to viewing online shopping as a passing fad.

“That’s a little like the people in 2001 who said, ‘Yeah, e-commerce is fine for those crazy people…but my brand won’t ever sell online,’” Ruben said.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Last year, you couldn’t go a week without a brand launching a resale platform, quite literally.

In 2022, 88 brands introduced resale programs during a year the US secondhand market saw $39 billion in sales compared to $35 billion in 2021, according to ThredUp’s latest annual resale report in partnership with Global data.

• The report predicts the US secondhand market will reach $70 billion by 2027, growing nine times faster than the broader apparel sector.
• Resale is also a global phenomenon. The $177 billion in 2022 sales was a 28% increase from $138 billion over 2021, and the global market is estimated to reach $350 billion by 2027.

Although resale was widely adopted in 2022 and online resale climbed at a faster rate, macroeconomic factors, such as inflation and the cooling of the broader retail market from its 2021 highs, have tempered the growth trajectory for resale over the next five years, according to ThredUp.

• Last year’s report predicted the US secondhand market would reach $82 billion by 2026, as opposed to this year’s report, which estimates the market will total $66 billion by that time.

“2022 wasn’t a banner year for anybody selling anything. Maybe it was for premium and luxury—really post-Covid categories—but for apparel, 2022, as a discretionary category, was a tough year,” Anthony Marino, president at ThredUp, told Retail Brew.

Digital dash: Where resale has shone in particular is online. ThredUp predicts the online market alone will reach $38 billion by 2027, growing twice as fast as the rest of the secondhand market.

• Online resale is expected to grow 21% on average each year over the next five years.
• And Zoomers are driving that growth: 58% of Gen Z who bought secondhand in the last year made at least one purchase online, more than any other cohort.

Keep reading here.—KM

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

We’re getting to know Bet Hannon, CEO of AccessiCart, which works with e-commerce retailers to improve their website accessibility for people with disabilities.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? We make sure people with disabilities can use e-commerce sites—essentially, ADA compliance in the US. We work with e-commerce merchants, testing and fixing the things on their sites that keep the site from being used easily by people with disabilities. Everything from making sure images have alt text (including good alt text for product images) and font sizes and colors are readable, to making sure checkout forms work with screen readers and keyboard navigation.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I love being outdoors, especially hiking or snowshoeing. It’s one of the reasons I moved to Bend, Oregon.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? We created a new accessibility compliant site for a large ($5 million/year) nonprofit that included all their development functionalities. We blew up the stereotype that accessible equals ugly. It’s a cutting-edge, gorgeous design.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about this year, and why? Accessibility, obviously. Around 25% of all adults have some disability that requires accommodation, and I love seeing the win-win of helping them with usable e-comm and the merchant with expanding their audience. This focus is becoming more of a trend because of lawsuits in the US and new laws that will come into effect in the EU in 2025.

What’s your go-to coffee order? Medium nonfat latte, extra hot.

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? “Don’t do anything, just wait and see.”

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? [Then,] my Apple II. [Now,] my iPhone. Not much has changed, huh?

Today’s top retail reads.

Milking it: As younger generations increasingly turn to milk alternatives, the dairy industry is embarking on a new marketing effort, hoping to drive Gen Z to milk the way the star-studded “Got Milk?” ads of the 1990s and 2000s did for older demographics. (the New York Times)

High energy: Amazon said it aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, yet it helped squash an Oregon bill aimed at curbing industries with large carbon footprints. (the Washington Post)

Barring fruit: Fruit-flavored soda brand Fanta debuted a rebrand that moves away from the classic orange, both on the logo and in the beverage itself. (Fast Company)

Want to take your relationship with Retail Brew to the next level? Throughout the year, we will gather fellow retail leaders for discussion and dinner in NYC.

Apply now for a chance to partake in an evening of conversation about the most pressing issues retailers face today—oh, and some great food.

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

• How Stitch Fix uses AI to take personalization to the next level
• The evolving shopping habits of Old Navy and Rent the Runway’s customers
• Mid-range office wear is on its way out