Net-A-Porter launches fashion resale offering

The resale platform is launching in the UK first

The firm has partnered with resale technology provider Reflaunt to launch the service, which will cover bags, shoes and jewellery.

Under the service, customers can register their items and have Reflaunt collect them from their homes, ready for authentication, pricing recommendations, photography and listing on international online marketplace sites. Once the items are sold, customers receive a Net-A-Porter store credit voucher with an extra 10% added to the value.

There will also be an alternative option, whereby customers immediately receive credit once their items are accepted, without the 10% incentive. This is called “immediate buy-back”.

The initiative is launching for UK customers using the Net-A-Porter website at the end of October. It will then be rolled out to UK customers using Mr Porter and The Outnet in early 2022. After that point, the business will confirm dates for launch in the US, Hong Kong and Germany.

“More than ever, our customers are looking for fashion that is not only designed to last, but for ways in which it can go on to be re-loved,” said the firm’s president of luxury and fashion, Alison Loehnis.

“We are thrilled to partner with Reflaunt and offer our customers an effortless service that allows them to resell their designer pieces with ease. We see re-commerce as a true enabler to tap into greater product longevity by extending the lives of pre-loved purchases. This collaboration represents an exciting step in our long-term mission to drive the change at Yoox Net-A-Porter to a more circular fashion ecosystem.”

Net-A-Porter’s parent company, Yoox Net-A-Porter, notably committed to bringing re-commerce options to customers across all of its online stores by 2025 as part of its updated sustainability strategy, which is called ‘Infinity’ and spans through to 2030.

Other commitments to the circular economy detailed in ‘Infinity’ include developing a sustainable and circular procurement framework for in-house labels and brand partners; training in-house design and buying teams in this framework; launching repair pilots in Milan, London and New York and increase sustainability-related communications with customers.

Yoox-Net-A-Porter is also a signatory of the Price of Wales’ Terra Carta – a charter for businesses, committing them to responding to the scale of the interconnected climate and nature crises and to shape a green recovery from the economic fallout of Covid-19.

A growing market

According to ThredUp’s 2021 Resale Report, the global fashion resale market is set to double by 2025, reaching a value of $77bn. By 2030, that report stated, it could be worth $84bn, as the value of the traditional fast fashion sector hits $40bn.

Resale has been a focus in the luxury fashion space in particular.

Selfridges, for example, last year launched a new service enabling shoppers to buy and sell vintage and modern garments and accessories from own-brand labels instore and online. 

Other brands offering a similar service include Farfetch, Mulberry and Burberry.

The British Fashion Council is urging companies to go beyond setting headline sustainability targets to cut emissions and waste in-house, and reduce the number of garments they are producing. The number of garments, shoes and accessories made globally has grown exponentially with the rise of fast fashion, outpacing developments in resale and recycling technologies and infrastructure.

Sarah George