Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS) has partnered with online marketplace eBay to expand the latter's pre-loved offering.
- The partnership will help more brands and retailers to create and quickly scale up resale offerings, while giving eBay UK’s 20 million plus customers more choice in second hand goods.
- The first retail partner to launch on ACS’ eBay Shop is Monsoon.
The Context: The tie-up follows new research from eBay, which reveals a growing ‘resale economy’ in the UK, as more cost-conscious and environmentally minded consumers choose to buy and sell second-hand over new.
- Almost nine in 10 (87%) UK adults surveyed said they have bought an item second-hand in the past twelve months, while more than six in 10 (63%) say they have sold a second-hand item.
- The survey asked adults about their experiences and motivations of buying second-hand. The top reasons were: to “get a better deal or to find a bargain” (32%), to “cut back on spending”, and “the rise of the cost of living” (both 31%), followed by a drive to be “more sustainable” (26%).
- One in four (25%) adults said a larger range of second-hand items now being available to buy was a key reason for them making a second-hand purchase.
The Partnership: ACS cleans and repairs second-hand items, making them resale ready, as well as arranging the logistics of item listing and delivery. The eBay platform will connect its millions of shoppers worldwide with this stock.
- The partnership aims to capitalise on the increasing shift to second-hand, which is being driven by the rising cost of living and greater concern for the impact on the environment.
The Barriers: The research found barriers exist when it comes to second-hand items becoming mainstream.
- Concerns about hygiene (51%), safety of second-hand products (35%), quality issues (28%) and fake or inauthentic goods (27%) are the main reasons for avoiding preloved goods.
- The new partnership aims to tackle some of these misconceptions in the second-hand market, with strict quality controls and high standards of repair helping to improve trust among shoppers and nudge more shoppers to choose preloved.
What They Said:
Our economy and our environment are in need of urgent repair. If we want our businesses to be here in 20 or 100 years’ time, we need to move away from our fixation on overconsumption and instead mark ourselves on circularity. There is huge commercial value in backing the resale economy and the retailers that are first to make the change and invest, will benefit the most in the long run.
— Murray Lambell
Vice-President
eBay UK
Pairing eBay’s reach among conscious customers, with ACS’ expertise in garment repair, resale and recycling will help reduce waste in the fashion industry and showcase a kinder way to shop that benefits both people’s wallets and the planet.”
— Jemma Tadd
Head of Fashion
eBay UK
This partnership with eBay is not only important news for the development of circular fashion, we process over six million items at our 200,000 sq ft fashion hub each year, but it is a stepping stone for ACS as this will enable us to open our first brand approved shop front. We want to redesign the future of fashion by providing a solution to the industry’s sustainability crisis. We seek to transform the fashion industry from the outdated take-make-dispose model toward a circular fashion solution that extends the life of existing textiles and diverts clothing from landfills. With eBay, we know this is possible.
— Andrew Rough
Chief Executive Officer
ACS Clothing
