Rolex Certified Pre-Owned : What Every Brand Should be Watching

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J. Crew launched its resale program, J. Crew Always, with Thredup’s Resale as a Service (RaaS) last week, well-timed to be announced at NRF’s Big Show.? Given the existing Madewell program with ThredUP, it wasn’t surprising to see J Crew enter resale in this way.

According to WWD, “The J. Crew items already listed on ThredUp are not part of the J. Crew Always initiative.” Historically it has been a marketplace limitation to pull in thousands of items already listed on the branded resale site, often degrading the brand given the wide range of item conditions.? This program seems to be a significant step forward to designate only some of the items as fitting branded resale.

Second, segmented inventory allows J. Crew to sell in select stores.? According to a Retail Dive article, “the 40-year-old brand is leveraging its longevity with ‘J. Crew Vintage,’ a curated collection for men and women to be sold at select stores, including two in New York City.”? It is a smart move for J. Crew as it provides a reason to visit a physical store and leverages store traffic to create awareness of the online program.

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Similarly, Depop launched a collection in combination with Tommy Hilfiger.? No bells and whistles to call out but worth noting as more brands are looking to capitalize on the shift to secondhand.

RaaS programs have come a long way in recent years with more customizable storefronts and now more segmented inventory.? However, brands need to remember that even with these steps, and it is far from a branded experience.? In the end, J. Crew Always will operate on the same technology as ThredUP, constrained on brand choices such as product title, description, search, and markdowns which optimizes ThredUP, not the J. Crew brand.? Additionally, at some point, all brands will need to own their customers and keep a competitor from sharing sales data for a significant and growing channel.

纽约时报 started their piece, Rolex Now Has a Resale Program. The Watch World Quakes:

"There is a saying in the high-end watch trade that there are only two kinds of watchmakers: Rolex and everyone else.”?

It’s an excellent article for anyone in the resale space.? Rolex is not only instructive for the watch category, but the high-end watch category is instructive for fashion, luxury handbags, ready-to-wear, outdoor gear, and footwear companies. There are learnings here for how to view items, even if many are aspirational.

ROLEX Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) validates the secondhand market for many customers and undoubtedly increases the value of every new Rolex sold–as a product becomes an asset.? By enforcing CPO standards, Rolex will also drive up the secondary price of these timepieces, furthering the quality of the brand–i.e., CPO Rolex will sell at a premium, which is a good thing for Rolex.

Finally, Harvard Business Review published an article, How Sustainability Efforts Fall Apart; an excellent read for anyone in a larger brand organization working on resale. I listened this morning as Max Bittner, CEO of Vestiaire Collective, answered a question about the metrics his investors watch as a B Corp.? Max’s straight-faced answer was gross merchandise value (GMV), revenue, and net profit. The audience gasped as he didn’t mention CO2 displacement, water savings, etc.??

I agree with Max’s answer and would have likely added that resale models achieving business value is the way we will achieve more sustainable, circular models.? Brands must make similar or even more money on circular models if we want them to take hold and ultimately provide more sustainable solutions to the fashion industry.

The So What

#1 Even as marketplace platforms provide more options for brands, they ultimately are incentivized to build their customer base rather than the brand.

#2 Rolex’s move into CPO can be instructive for brands in the high-end watch industry as well as other industries, including fashion, luxury, outdoor, and footwear.

Until Next Week,

Andy Ruben | Founder & Exec Chair of Trove

Resources:

J. Crew Ups Efforts Furthering Circular Economy

WWD

J. Crew, seeking to help save the environment and help shoppers save a few dollars, has launched a new initiative, “J. Crew Always.”? The initiative includes a “360-resale” program powered by ThredUp’s Resale-as-a-Service and a program selling J. Crew vintage men’s, women’s and kids’ fashions in select stores.???

J. Crew brand launches resale program, to offer vintage styles

Reuters

Jan 17 (Reuters) - J. Crew Group said on Tuesday it had launched a new resale program for its eponymous brand, which will offer used styles online and vintage apparel in select J. Crew stores.? Under the company's new "J. Crew Always" banner, pre-owned styles will be listed through its website and through ThredUp (TDUP.O), an online consignment platform that partners with the clothing retailer on resale services.

J. Crew embraces resale

Retail Dive

Madewell has been working with ThredUp to collect and sell preowned items for four years, starting with an effort focused on denim that expanded a couple of years later. Last year, Madewell also began selling secondhand sweaters, bags, and other items, Hershfield said. That experience has allowed J. Crew to ramp up its effort reasonably quickly, she said, speaking at a panel at the National Retail Federation’s conference in New York on Tuesday.

TOMMY HILFIGER LAUNCHES ITS FIRST-EVER DEPOP SHOP

Hypebae

Tommy Hilfiger is officially open for business, well, on Depop anyway. The heritage brand just launched its first-ever Depop shop in a bid to champion secondhand clothing and give its unusable items a brand new home. Offering a curated range of pre-loved TOMMY HILFIGER and TOMMY JEANS pieces from the brand’s retail stores, e-commerce channels, and archives, the new store will enable consumers to get their hands on unique pieces while minimizing their impact. Comprised of approximately 100 tops and bottoms, including denim, T-shirts, dresses, and outerwear, the collection will span an inclusive size range of XXS to 3XL.

Rolex Now Has a Resale Program. The Watch World Quakes.

New York Times

There is a saying in the high-end watch trade that there are only two kinds of watchmakers: Rolex and everyone else. The privately owned, Geneva-based brand dominates the industry by virtually every measure. However, many of these comparisons are based on estimates due to Rolex’s well-known reluctance to share information. In 2021, the company’s sales were estimated to total 8 billion Swiss francs ($8.56 billion), accounting for 28.8 percent of the global watch market’s retail value — up from 26.8 percent in 2020 and 24.6 percent in 2019 — according to a Morgan Stanley report released in March, the most recent information available.

How Sustainability Efforts Fall Apart

Harvard Business Review

Through an asset sale via cash, the acquisition will bring together the two companies, both of which serve a similar high-net-worth consumer base. A press release stated that Worn’s buyers and sellers would be on board the Sellier platform as part of the deal, growing the latter’s business by around 25 percent in the coming year.

Vestiaire Collective’s fast-fashion ban: clever or counterproductive?

Inside Retail

Last November, international fashion resale platform Vestiare Collective shocked the apparel industry by banning the trade of ‘fast-fashion’ labels. Welcomed by some commentators, others questioned if the move might be counterproductive in closing the door on a proper channel allowing consumers to repurpose used clothing rather than consign them to landfills as waste.