Why resale kept growing in 2023

At amusement parks, it’s the ride operators who, for safety reasons, use hand clickers to count how many people get on the Tilt-A-Whirl. But when it comes to one of retail’s bigger attractions in recent years—branded resale—it’s ThredUp that’s been doing the counting.

Along with ranking the 100 brands with the most active resale programs, ThredUp’s The Recommerce 100, which is updated monthly, compiles retailers and brands who’ve launched resale programs.

Among the brands on the current list, 39 launched in 2023, including H&M, Kate Spade, and Carhartt. As impressive as it is that so many brands cracked the list this year, even more did so in 2022, when 72 brands on the list launched their resale programs that year.

In November, the brand with the most resale items listed was Madewell, with 28,623 items, followed by 2023 newcomer American Eagle (25,667), Tea Collection (24,200), and Athleta (23,010).

Here are some takeaways from the year that was:

Resale’s growing (but slowing)

As any 18-year-old will tell you, at some point the growth spurts wane and your parents stop marking your height in the doorframe. Resale isn’t there yet, but growth is slowing:

• In 2022, the number of brands with resale programs grew from 36 to 124, an increase of 244.4%.
• In 2023 (as of November), however, that number grew from 124 to 165, a dramatically smaller increase of 33.1%.

While there may be fewer rookies on Team Resale, brands that have been at it a few years may be stepping up their game.

Emily Gittins, co-founder and CEO of Archive, which partners with brands including The North Face and Oscar de la Renta on their resale programs, told Retail Brew that while all of its partners are profitable with their resale programs, only some brands saw their profit margins grow in 2023.

“What we’ve seen this year play out is that [for] some of our more established brands, we’ve been able to kind of work with them on the profitability side, and some actually have margins now that are higher than their overall business,” Gittins said, referring to the comparative profitability of their new products versus their resale programs. “For one brand, it’s double their overall business.”

Luxury brands are getting on board

Luxury brands have famously been late adopters to resale, with the brands fearing that selling used items would cannibalize the sales of their bigger-ticket items.

That tide began to turn in 2022, when, among others, a quintessential luxury brand, Rolex, introduced its resale program.

In 2023, more luxury brands took the resale plunge, including Kate Spade and Canada Goose.

“We’ve seen the beginnings of luxury brand adoption, which is very exciting,” Gayle Tait, CEO at Trove, which also partners with brands to launch and operate their resale programs, and which added Canada Goose to its roster in 2023, told Retail Brew.

If anything, Tait, said, luxury brands may be best suited to resale because they tend to be expensively made products that hold up well.

“Luxury brands are really well positioned to tell their story about the longevity and the durability of their products,” Tait said.