The Power of Resell Strategy with Archive

You're listening to retail refined, a market scale podcast with me, Melissa Gonzalez. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode, or should I say segment? A retailer fine coming to you live from Shop Talk twenty twenty three. Right now, I am sitting with Emily Gittens. She is the CEO and co founder of archive, and they are a forward thinking platform that powers the resale revolution. And we've heard about resale before, but what I'm really excited about is how they're doing it differently and the exciting partnerships that they're announcing. So Emily, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for asking me. Yeah. So why don't you tell the audience because that was very high level. Yeah. A little bit more archive. Absolutely. Yeah. So in archive, we help brands launch their own resale programs. They all know resale is a trend that's taking off and people really wanna buy and sell products secondhand, we're allowing brands to own that experience on their own e commerce site. So rebuild the software that allows them to build the buying experience and then all of the the management and logistics behind the scenes as well. That's great. So there's such an evolution too in how you guys are addressing it. Right? And and there's the peer to peer aspects. There's you helping facilitate kind of the logistics of the product itself, which is a huge pain point, I think, for brands. So it'd be great to talk about that. And And a big topic at Shop Talk is how, like logistics and supply chain conversations actually are sexy. But, also, you have this really exciting announcement that came right before Shop Top. So let's start with that what you're doing with Ula Jobs then. And then, yeah, I'd love to break down the different aspects of resale, you know, kind of the different ways in which a break can work with you. That sounds great. Yeah. Yeah. Really excited to announce our partnership with Ola Johnson just a week or two ago. We launched with them with a a fully branded Ola Johnson prelapped program. Yeah. We'd actually got to know the team maybe nine months or a year ago now. And a lot of time with them working through How to make this feel really unique and bespoke for the Ola Johnson customer, and so incorporated in a lot of different features that that were specific to them as well into this launch. So I wanna talk about the heart's feature because I'm going to use that. Because I love La Johnson, and also wanna touch upon the conversation of, you know, resale and its ability to support a luxury marketing, because in the past, you know, you would you would never, you know, promote shopping last season right or secondhand or any of that. And but we're really it makes a an a brand that is a luxury brand accessible and approachable back to you. And enables a new entry point discovering that brand. That's exactly right. I'm always seeing generally the customer who's buying secondhand through a branded channel is half at least half the time new to the brand, and they are priced out of that full price product. So, especially for a brand like Ola Johnson, who has such a big base of of aspirational customers. Yeah. But it's a high quality, high priced product. This allows them to access a a different customer base and and bring them into that brand over time. Yeah. So, okay. So tell us about the different opportunities if a brand was to partner with you. Tell us a little bit about peer to peer and the different, I think there's about four right now kind of products. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So pretty much most brands at this point understand that resellers a huge opportunity. The business case is really clear both on their How do I make new revenue, acquiring new customers, and the loyalty perspective as well? And so the number one question we get today is, okay, where do I stop? Right. And so one of one of the pieces to that is to think about how you wanna source supply as a brand. And in general, we're evaluating four or five different streams of supply as that starting point. So the first is peer to peer. That's allowing customers to directly list onto the platform. Ola Johnson is doing this. So customers, you know, from your home, from your you can list your your handheld pieces onto the site. It's a great way to build high quality supply really quickly and easily doesn't require the logistics piece that you talked about. And it's great particularly for brands who wanna create more of a community around resale. The second is a take back program. So this is actually allowing customers to either drop off pieces in store or mail them into you, and then those will be processed by one of our partners using our software and listed onto that same site. So that's a great if you if you really wanna control the resell experience in a significant way, that's a great way to to do that, and it's also good for driving. Foot traffic in the store. Absolutely. The third is is vintage resellers. So we actually work with brands like Oscar La Renta and Marie Mecco who are really wanna showcase the history and heritage of their brand through a resale program. And so for them, they're listing, they're having vintage resellers list directly onto the site, And then finally, well, there's two more, but brand supply is kind of the final big one where brands will often list things like damage returns from e commerce that can't be sold as new as a great way to see the marketplace or or just generate more supply that They have nothing else to do with. Yeah. And so where are you seeing brands gravitate to right now? Like, what are the most popular of those options that, brands are kind of dipping their toes into? Yeah. I would say peer to peer in brand supply often great starting points to really test out pricing, demand, and then once that's proven, our lot of brands want to layer on it in store take back program as well. So for an example, with partnership with the North Face. We started with the peer to peer experience in Canada, then we launched with damage returns in the US, and now we have install tape back in both those markets. So it's not one and forever. It's how do I layer on different models over time and and scale the program? Yeah. No. I think it's it's so great for the in store variance, and there's so many conversations we do a lot of our own survey work, at my firm, understanding, like, you know, what consumers want out of their relationships with brand. Yeah. And having that sustained abilities is a big aspect to it. Yeah. And they would be driven Right. To have that interaction in store and and know that they're doing good, and that it is as frictionless as possible to be able to do so. And I think that the key thing is making it as fictional as possible. And then, yes, ideally, then you have them captive in the store. Another reason for them to walk through that door. Yeah. Absolutely. So you you recently, raised fifteen million. Yes. And and you're growing that managed resale, that business. Yep. Tell us a little bit more, you know, what's in the what's in the road map? Like, where what what's what's on your to do list for the next year or two? Yeah. Good question. We're building so much more into our product across a lot of different dimensions. So part of it is really improving our e commerce experience and an important new brand's ability to manage that business. When we think about how does resale shelf and e commerce, it's really different to new products. And therefore, the way that you merchandize, the way that you curate products is is really different and unique. And so we're building out a lot of tools to help brand do that in a scaled way. The second thing comes to mind is a huge part of our technology is our ability to integrate with brands' historical data. Yeah. So that we can, you know, you list your own or Johnson dress, and we've got the original e commerce, photography, and names, and prices. So that that's just easier for sellers and also a better buying experience too. Mhmm. So building out more data integrations to make that possible with with more and more brands. And then the third thing is really thinking about how we leverage stores in the best way. One of them is in store. Yeah. Take back, but also is our stores a good place to drop off items for a peer to peer experience? Do we want to sell items in stores? That just feels like there's a lot of untapped opportunity? No. Absolutely. And you were just on stage here in Shop Talk this morning. What were some of the the biggest trends, overall, right, in in the market when it comes to resale that you spoke about or that you're excited about? Yeah. I think the biggest one is just the amount of brands adopting this and how quickly that I'm snowballing. And then this really shift in mindset from this being. Okay. We must have a resale business. Let's tick a box. So now brands really talking about this as a significant revenue driver for them in a significant part of their business. Being willing to put, you know, resources and and teams behind this because they see such a significant long term opportunity in the channel. And I think there's so much opportunity in the data, like you said. I mean, even imagining as you described with it will address, you know, if I've added it to my cart in the Maybe didn't purchase it. And now you have another way to follow-up with me. And you have said this in the past, Melissa, it's it's now available through resale do, you know, I would probably be hooked. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's great. And that's one of the features we launched with Ullo is called Hart's desire, which she mentioned. And it allows you to actually say, oh, I loved that dress from three seasons ago, but I missed out on it at the time. And then the Ula team can help find the original purchases of that and match you with a seller who might be looking to use it on. Yeah. That's great. Okay. So we talked about the more immediate road map. Yeah. What's happening three to five years from now? Like, yeah, it is the opportunity where does resale go? Yeah. In three years, we believe Edward Brown will have a research channel, and it will be a significant and still fast growing part of their business. We talk about it in the same way brands were talking about e commerce, you know, ten or twenty years ago. It was a small channel at the time, but it's now so so significant only just in the beginning of that journey. As I mentioned, we think brands will be selling online, but also in stores and leveraging, you know, their entire network in really interesting ways. And then have built up a ton of data on how well products sell. And so they'll be able to buy back with very precise pricing and lots of different models, To really give the customer that best experience of, you know, investing in a purchase and then knowing, in two years, this is what I can expect for a resale price and to have feels more like an investment purchase. Mhmm. And then the final thing is we we feel like new and used are gonna be very, very integrated over time as this industry develops. No. Absolutely. I mean, I think, rent the runway, it peeps away a little bit. Yeah. Right? And that it it it condition people to realize, like, it can still Right. Get a great quality. I mean, it's a little bit different because you're renting it, but and it's not new, but I'm still getting this opportunity to have her back to try this brand that I've been coveting, and I, you know, wanna understand, like, how it fits and and all of that. So I think it's really exciting. And I think that that dovetail of it, consumers really wanting to, stand behind and put their dollars behind brands that empower sustainability. Is also gonna be a big driver with this as well. Absolutely. Yeah. No one wants to be throwing their clothes into landfill. So just the more opportunity who's making it, we can give people to get things back into use consumer as well. Yeah. Well, you're just getting started and you're already accomplishing so much. So congratulations and honor of success in just a couple years. Yeah. Congratulations in Ola Johnson. And, we're gonna keep watching. Thanks a lot. Thank you for sitting with me. Again, everybody, this was Emily Gins. She is the CEO and co founder of archive. And keep your eye as you continue to shop because you're going to see if their technology powering more and more brands. Thank you so much. In