The fear of cannibalization is - penny wise and pound foolish.

Asking whether having preloved items for sale will cannibalize a brand’s first hand sales is like saying that offering returns, cash on delivery and discounts will cannibalize your revenue. Sure enough on a day any of the above will feel like they will reduce revenue but in the long run one understands and witnesses that they actually increase over all revenue. 

Good marketeers and brand owners understand that it all works together! Brand building is not linear. 

Yet since it is one of the unexpressed fears some brand founders have before considering a resale program, we would love to explain in this blog.

It’s been a year, Relove has helped over 50+ brands go circular, we can now confirm that enabling a resale program for your customers will NOT cannibalize your sales. Instead, a resale program will help you use re-commerce as a tool for brand growth.

1. Increased Overall Revenue - Brand founders who directly and frequently interact with their customers have told us that this helps them make first hand sales. Customers are not afraid to make a decision because there is an option to resell. For a product that has a chance of being resold, customer’s are also willing to pay more. 

2. Increased Overall Revenue - Increased loyalty and hence LifeTime Customer Value. Bunaai, a leading ethnic wear brand on Relove gained deep customer loyalty with 12X on Relove store credit. “Giving my customers a resell button has brought them closer to the brand. Solving customers' problems builds a deep level of loyalty.” says Pari Chowdhary, founder of Bunaai. 

3. Increased Overall Revenue - We have seen less than 10% overlap between sellers and buyers. This means your current customers will be the sellers who will only buy something new from the brand after selling the piece they own. 

4. Increased Overall Revenue - We are seeing 3 demographics of customers coming to buy preloved from the brand.  

• Gen Z who support the idea or resale/ discount buying as a whole.
• Sustainability focused audience who are climate warriors.
• People sitting on the price fence of your brand.

“Relove has helped us acquire new customers - people who are aware that buying preloved can slow down climate change” say Suta co-founders Sujata and Taniya.

7. Increased Overall Revenue - We have seen 77% of the customers who come and buy preloved are new to the brand, and 75% of these convert to buying new from the brand. 

8. Increased Overall Revenue - Slowly you can increase the value and price of your products, producing good quality long lasting products for a higher price that customers are willing to pay because of their resale value.

9. Increased Overall Revenue - By giving your customers a resell button, you give them one more solid reason to shop from you. Customers want to buy from Sustainable Fashion brands and preloved from you makes sustainability affordable. 

10. Increased Overall Revenue - Resale is an opportunity to grow revenue without creating or manufacturing. You get to earn through your products already in the market without bearing the trouble of manufacturing, logistics or customer service. Not just that, you can clear out your deadstock, excess inventory and even sample pieces and create revenue. Brands are able to add 3-5% to their revenue just through their digital factory outlet. 

11. Increased Overall Revenue - Your products are getting resold anyway, this way you can reclaim the resale revenues of your products. Whether you are for or against the resell idea, your customers are reselling your products anyway. A number of Facebook marketplaces and resale platforms have come up that are letting your customers carry out the resale transaction.

12. Increased Overall Revenue - Customer Preferences are changing, they want Preloved options - Regardless of whether your brand directly enables resale, consumers actively compare between new and secondhand. Indeed, 62% of Gen Z and millennials say they look for an item secondhand before purchasing it new.

13. Also by the way - Enabling a resell button empowers your customers to reduce their water, waste and carbon footprint. Adopting circularity for your brand helps you shift the idea of sustainability from a burden to a growth channel.

14. And finally, brands that don’t engage in resale, will be left behind. Resale market has more than 244 bn $ worth of opportunity. The global secondhand apparel market is expected to grow 127% by 2026 – that’s three times faster than the global apparel market overall.

15. So you are not cannibalizing your pie, you are growing it, increasing the whole size of the pie!