Archive, a startup that works with brands to resell their own secondhand products, just had a big transaction of its own: $8 million in new funding.

• The seed round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bain Capital Venture; investors including Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta, and Shan-Lyn Ma, co-founder and CEO of Zola, also participated.
• Archive, which is just shy of a year in business, has now raised ~$10 million in total, according to the company.

How it works: Archive helps retailers create their own resale marketplaces—sites that often look very similar to their existing e-comm presence, complete with the original product photography and descriptive copy. Along with building and maintaining the websites, Archive is part curator and facilitator, setting up forms for sellers to ensure clothes aren’t too worn—or smelly.

The goal? In part, to enable companies to keep customers close rather than losing them to popular platforms like eBay.

It’s a growing concern among brands amid an exploding resale market, explained Emily Gittins, co-founder and CEO of Archive. She spoke to about 100 retailers about resale before starting the company, and they said they felt kind of...ghosted.

“They were seeing their customers buy things from their brand and then leave the platform and go to Poshmark and Depop” to eventually resell them, Gittins told Retail Brew. “Customers are talking about their product and sharing love about it and they’re completely cut out of that whole ecosystem.”

• So far, five brands have introduced resale sites through Archive, including The North Face (just in Canada for now), and Oscar de la Renta.
• But more retailers are taking note of the strategy: 60% of US industry execs offer or are open to offering resale items to their customers, according to a ThredUp report.

Archive has only about a year of data, but what it has is promising for companies: Sellers on its resale sites are offered an option of getting the selling price minus what’s usually a 30% commission (brands vary) in cash, or the entire amount in store credit. Three out of four take the store credit to buy something new from the brand, according to Gittins.

Crowded closet

Archive certainly isn’t the only company powering resale for retailers. ThredUp introduced its resale-as-a-service platform in 2019, and has already partnered with some 20 brands, including Adidas and Crocs.

• Other startups like Trove and Recurate have also emerged on the scene.

Looking ahead: Still, Gittins is excited for what’s next. She said Archive has “a lot more brands in the pipeline” set to debut this year, but declined to reveal which ones. Still, whoever they turn out to be, she said there’s more in it for retailers than just making a sale.

“Part of this is pulling that [sale] back into the brand and actually seeing a resale offering as an asset which you use to build community and love around your brand.”—AAN

FedEx and Microsoft are in ship-shop shape.

The two companies announced a “cross-platform ‘logistics-as-a-service’” offering for brands, retailers, and merchants yesterday, that will give consumers more shopping options and help ensure their packages are delivered on time.

• The service allows brands to better fulfill, ship, and service orders, since it will be streamlined into retailers’ existing e-comm platforms.
• It’ll also come with real-time delivery status updates and frictionless returns at 60,000 dropoff locations (via digital QR codes).

The big number: With more deliveries, more efficiencies must follow. FedEx expects an average of 110 million packages will be delivered in the US every day this year, or 40+ billion in all for 2022. A whopping 86% of that growth is projected to come from e-comm transactions.

Team players: This isn’t the first time the two companies have collabed. In 2020, FedEx introduced FedEx Surround, its first customer-facing solution, which provides real-time analytics on shipment tracking—and was built using Microsoft’s cloud tech. Yesterday’s announcement builds on the partnership and aims to provide companies with more insight into the supply chain to improve the entire shopping experience.

“More than ever, it’s clear just how critical having a resilient supply chain is for every organization’s success in the modern economy,” noted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a joint statement.—KM

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Covid had just begun to rear its infectious head during Fashion Week 2020. Last year, brands tried out virtual runways to mixed reviews. Now, in another pandemic-plagued year, the catwalk still has some caution tape.

Yesterday, Tom Ford canceled his fall 2022 runway show, which was scheduled to close NYFW on February 16, due to omicron’s impact on his atelier and design studio in LA, and factory shutdowns in Italy. Ford, who is also chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, will instead release images of the collection digitally later this year.

• He’s not alone: Earlier this month, Giorgio Armani announced that his fashion shows in both Paris and Milan would not go on. JW Anderson also canceled his Milan runway show, opting instead for a digital showing.

According to a statement, many on Ford’s staff have been out sick with Covid and the brand will “simply not have a completed collection in time for New York Fashion Week.” On the flip side, many designers, including Tory Burch, Helmut Lang, Coach, and Telfar, are still planning on traditional NYFW shows.

Not playing dress-up: Fashion Week is an integral source of revenue and marketing for  brands, Erin Schmidt, a senior analyst at Coresight Research, told us last week. So another year without in-person shows…is less than ideal. “Not only is Fashion Week important for major brands, but it is exceptionally important for the entire retail industry because all eyes are on high-fashion major brands to set the [fashion] agenda for the season,” she said.

“Mass retailers and fast fashion look to runway shows, as all of the Fashion Week trends inform and inspire designers and brands’ collections.”—JG

Today’s top retail reads.

Let’s talk: Size inclusivity has made some strides in womenswear. But why not in menswear? Models and industry insiders discuss what it’ll take. (Vogue Business)

Alive and (very) well: Dog toys, made-to-order vending machines, and skateboards painted (in part) with Tony Hawk’s blood—here’s how canned water brand Liquid Death is winning the merch game. (Modern Retail)

Made in…Pakistan? The country is quickly emerging as a new hub for denim. “We are one of the world’s best-kept secrets,” said Faisal Ahmed, chief executive of Artistic Denim Mills, one of the country’s largest denim manufacturers. (Business of Fashion)

What happened in the world of retail this week in…1935 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

You’ll definitely want to cheers to this week:

• On January 23, 1992, Whole Foods went public. It had just 12 stores at the time, and the first thought that came to mind when you heard “Amazon” was still the rainforest.
• Also on January 23, but in 2015, Gap shut down Piperlime, its online-first brand.
• On January 24, 1935, the first canned beer was sold in the US, in Richmond, Virginia.
• Fast-forward to January 24, 2011: JCPenney announced that it was finally exiting the catalog business.
• And on January 25, 1964, Nike was founded—as Blue Ribbon Sports.

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

• The upside of flight delays—for airport retailers
• Gopuff’s new private label is betting on customer insights to set it apart
• How men’s beauty brands plan to take off in 2022