There Will be a ‘Before and After’ of the Recent Rolex Pre-Certified Announcement

Rolex continued to make news this week as the industry digests the implications of their pre-certified program. Charles Gorra of Rebag was quoted in PYMTS saying “It’s incredible. I think [Rolex entering the market] is the biggest news that I’ve heard in the last decade in terms of the resale world. I think there will be a ‘before and after’ with that news. It changes everything,” he added, saying that it further legitimizes the resale industry.

According to Glossy, Rolex makes up roughly 30% of the luxury watch market and a far larger share of the secondhand market, estimated to be between 40-50% with some 30 million Rolexes circulating today. Regardless of changes in the commerce landscape, the best brands are designing and creating worthwhile items that maintain brand relevance with culture, this increasingly includes where and how existing items reflect on the brand. Rolex’s own pre-certified program is a watershed example for the luxury market. This a step all brands will ultimately take as more of their brand items live on in the secondary market.

In other news, Rebag launched a wallet feature that rewards sellers with 1% interest for leaving their payout in their ‘Wallet’. Rebag has always been on the edge of new customer-centric features most notably the Infinity Program which allows buyers to trade items back in for known amounts within given time periods (aka, rental without the need for a contract). In a similar vein, these new features drive loyalty on the supply side. As an example, a client who sells an item leaves their payout in their Wallet for the full 12 months, then puts the money toward a Rebag purchase will see their spending power increase to 24 percent. Today’s $5,000 offer, for example, would be worth $6,200 at Rebag in 12 months.

I am not sure if this will make a material difference in items sold as touted, but it is a nod toward supply-side loyalty. As BCG published findings this week that sellers are most motivated by time savings and making room in their closets. Recovering the residual value of their item was an additional motivation. But what I like about the Rebag Wallet is the long-game incentive to build loyalty at the supply level. Ultimately for the best brands, all markets will be supply-constrained and platforms such as The Real Real (TRR) and Rebag as well as brands such as REI are wise to begin building loyalty for those customers who trade in valuable items.

Finally, as covered in BoF and WWD, peer-to-peer player, Archive raised $15M last week. Congratulations to Ryan and Emily and the Archive team. While funding isn’t everything, building capabilities for brands is an investment and this puts Archive in step with peer-to-peer provider Recurate in terms of the ability to invest in needed technology. The increased competitive environment with a number of peer-to-peer platforms makes it easier than ever for brands to move forward with brand resale platforms. An incredible step for the resale industry. Longer term the test for these platforms will be scale, which I expect will require reverse logistics operations and far more investment, but the more providers and the more brands able to offer branded resale, the better.

Key Takeaways
Protect your brand. All great brands must maintain brand relevance with ever-evolving culture, which increasingly includes where and how past items reflect on the brand. Rolex’s launch of its pre-certified program is a great example of brands taking control.
Scale will be the name of the resale game.There are more options than ever for brands to enter brand-owned resale. Brands who launch programs will over time need to assure they can achieve scale which will include reverse logistics and operations.

Until Next Week,
Andy Ruben | Founder & Exec Chair of Trove


Week of December 13th

Can Rolex’s new resale program and booming secondhand market coexist?
Glossy
On December 2, luxury watch giant Rolex made an announcement heard throughout the watch world: It will officially begin selling secondhand Rolex watches certified by the brand through its 1,816 authorized dealers. It’s starting with six retailers immediately, and more will be added throughout 2023.

Rebag Debuts Wallet Feature to Help Break Resale Supply Bottleneck
PYMNTS
In announcing its new Wallet feature Wednesday (Dec. 7), the reCommerce platform is hoping the incentivized savings feature will entice more sellers into the market, Rebag founder and CEO Charles Gorra told PYMNTS, while also encouraging consumers to embrace an investor-like mentality as the 8-year-old business — and the industry — grows.

eBay UK Expands Secondhand Clothing Options Through New Partnership
Retail Touchpoints
eBay has launched a new UK partnership with clothing resale, sanitization, and repair platform ACS to expand the online marketplace’s secondhand offering and help reduce waste in the fashion industry. The partnership aims to help more brands create and scale resale offerings while adding more secondhand options to eBay UK’s platform.

Resale Start-up Archive Secures $15 Million in Funding
WWD
With this new influx of capital, Archive’s total funding is up to $24 million following a raise earlier this year in January. Today, Archive powers resale experiences spanning peer-to-peer, brand-managed, vintage marketplace and in-store resale models counting 32 brands — among them M.M. LaFleur, Filippa K, Dagne Dover, and Oscar de la Renta — in its resale camp.

Resale Platform Archive Raises $15 Million Series A Round
BofF
Creating tailored resale programs for each of its brand partners, Archive is one of several startups that enable brands to offer consumers a secondhand option. One of the Archive’s competitors, Trove, which counts Lululemon, Levi’s, and Patagonia as clients, raised $77.5 million dollars last autumn. Unlike Trove, Archive does not handle logistics on behalf of its brand partners. The bulk of its operation involves building peer-to-peer marketplaces where users can sell and purchase pre-owned pieces from one another. In recent months, Archive began to offer a managed resale model too.

The death of Depop
The Michigan Daily
The popularity of thrifting, especially among young women, often drew the ire of video essayists and journals alike. According to “Gentrification in Thrifting,” published in UCLA’s FEM newsmagazine, “Affluent shoppers often purchase excess inventory they found at low prices in thrift stores and resell it on websites such as Depop or Poshmark at substantially higher rates.” Due to this purchasing of clothing in bulk, blame often falls on the young women purchasing and selling these clothes online for the rise in prices and scarcity of clothing in stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army.

Driven by Gen-Z, Preowned Clothing is Expected to Make Up 27% of the Average Resale Buyer’s Closet By 2023
Business Review
The secondhand market is already worth 3% to 5% of the overall apparel, footwear, and accessories sector and could grow to as much as 40%. While resale products make up approximately one-quarter of secondhand products buyers’ closets, they are expected to comprise 27% of closets in 2023. Gen-Z consumers are the most apt to both buy (31%) and sell (44%) secondhand items, with millennials close behind.

Has Secondhand Gifting Finally Become Acceptable This Christmas?
Huffington Post
For a lot of people, the idea of buying our friends and family a gift from a charity shop feels odd. Will I offend someone if I buy them a second-hand gift? Will the gift be in good condition? What will I do if they want to return it? But, 38% of people said they had gifted someone a secondhand item over the past 12 months, according to a survey from Vinted. Another 65% of people said they would consider gifting someone a secondhand item in the next 12 months.