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How to capitalise on the passion for pre-loved fashion

Drapers examines how retailers big and small can add second-hand, or "preloved" items to their offer.

Drapers - How to capitalise on the passion for pre-loved fashion
A Preloved Kilo event

Buying second hand is more on trend for consumers than ever, for everything from furniture to fashion thanks to a burgeoning number of new “pre-loved” initiatives. Last week, global furniture retailer Ikea announced that customers can give back unwanted, assembled items in exchange for vouchers. The items will then be resold in its stores.

Second-hand clothes shopping has also evolved from a hobby for dedicated thrift store fans, to landing into the baskets of families doing the weekly food shop at supermarkets.

A survey by market research company Kantar found that the number of UK consumers buying clothing second hand rose by 5.7%, to 41.3% in the 52 weeks to 7 March 2021. Almost a fifth of those surveyed, 18.1%, said they shop for second-hand fashion regularly.

Earlier this month, Asda announced that it is rolling out second-hand sections in its George clothing departments in 50 stores across the UK. The supermarket has teamed up with vintage specialist Preloved Kilo to stock women’s and men's wear items, after a successful pilot scheme at its sustainable concept store in Middleton, Leeds.

Asda George preloved kilo

George's second-hand section in Asda supermarkets

George’s new second-hand section has a dedicated space in-store, marketed under the Preloved Vintage Wholesale (PVW) brand name, stocked with items bought on a wholesale basis from specialist firm Preloved Kilo.


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Mel Wilson, global professional lead, sustainable sourcing and quality at George, tells Drapers that communicating the new initiative to customers was essential: “The priority for us was that the range had its own identity and it was clear to the customer that it was a collection of individual, unique pieces of clothing that are pre-loved and have been worn before.”

Preloved Kilo launched in 2016, and before Covid, would host events across the UK where shoppers would pay for second-hand and vintage fashion by weight at £15 per kilo instead of per item.

Managing director Steve Lynam told Drapers that Asda has taken the comparatively niche market to scale: “Vintage clothing used to be an underground thing. It’s always been a dream of ours to get sustainable fashion into the mainstream. The pandemic really gave us that time to push it through quickly.”

A garment has gone through five or six pairs of hands and is quality checked before sending to George

Steve Lynam, Preloved Kilo

Some of the Asda stores involved in the scheme will be available in include Edinburgh, Bristol, Brighton, Wembley, Old Kent Road and Island Gardens stores. Preloved Kilo checks all the second-hand clothing for quality, washes and dries it at the company’s onsite laundry, and sends items packed neatly on hangers to George’s distribution centres.

“The person in store can literally take off the cover and place it on to the rail – a garment has gone through five or six pairs of hands and is quality checked before sending to George,” explains Lynam. “Asda decides the price point in conjunction with us. We wanted to get it to a point where what we’re offering is competitively priced with the supermarket, so as low as possible to the customer.”


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A vintage dress from the 1960s-70s is £15; blouses are £10-£12; a branded Levi’s jacket is £20. Lynam also says that shoppers could find a vintage Armani jacket for £20 – not bad for a trip to the supermarket. Asda buys from Preloved Kilo on a wholesale basis at an agreed price.

The partnership is beneficial to both parties, as Preloved Kilo gains access to Asda’s mammoth customer base, while the supermarket can use its new offering to lure in a new category of shoppers.

Lynam continues: “What George and Asda want to do is tap into our demographic of 16-to-45-year-olds who are interested in anything sustainable.”

Before Covid, Preloved Kilo’s dedicated buyer would spend up to six months of the year travelling to see its global suppliers in the US and East Asia, which instead have been sending items to the UK. Kilo sources from second-hand wholesalers and warehouses within the UK and worldwide.

If you want to grow your business easily by 5%, then do some circular selling

Jo Davies, Black White Denim

Lynam tells Drapers: “We have relationships [with suppliers] where we can handpick items. It doesn’t happen overnight. We hope this [partnership] has a massive impact and people will get into vintage stores. Some challenges are that you have to get a product that looks great but is also in a great condition – that comes from having years of experience and relationships.”

Take back to Toast

Womenswear brand Toast has a keen eye for sustainability, and launched its Toast Circle initiative in October 2019, as a way of keeping its products in circulation for longer – and cultivating customer loyalty.

Toast Cirlce's preloved items

Customers can return up to five worn items to its Bath, Edinburgh, Notting Hill and Mayfair shops. The pre-loved item is valued at either below £200, or above £200 by a staff member, and the customer can then use this token to “purchase” another pre-loved item, from any store.

The brand tells Drapers that it has had 100 swaps since retail reopened on 12 April. Despite the closure of "non-essential" retail during the Covid-19 pandemic, Toast has still managed to record 1,000 swaps in total since it launched the programme. Toast asks that customers bring their worn items to store washed and ironed, and says it has not had many instances where customers have not fulfilled the criteria for quality.

It says allowing customers to buy new items with the tokens would defeat the object of keeping older items in circulation, but “never say never”.

Return to spender

The second-hand and resale market is accessible for retailers of any size, from mass supermarkets, to premium multiples – and independents. It also represents an opportunity to attract customers into the store.

Black White Denim is a premium womenswear independent based in Wilmslow in Cheshire. It runs a similar resale scheme in a bid to increase the life span of clothing, and has a rail of preloved clothing inside the store.

Toast customers are encouraged to note down the history of their preworn items.

Owner Jo Davies launched the store's Pre-loved section in 2020, a couple of months before the pandemic started, as a way to reduce clothing waste. Customers can bring in items they bought from Black White Denim, or from brands it has previously stocked – including Rixo, Anine Bing and Gestuz – are long as they are in good condition. The store and the customer agree on a selling price, and the customer receives a gift voucher to spend in store once their item has been sold.

The scheme has its own Instagram page with 1,200 followers. Shoppers can only buy Pre-loved items from the store and not from Black White Denim's website, and are not offered the option to return or exchange them, which keeps the scheme viable, Davies says. Savvy shoppers can snap up a Baum Und Pfergarten dress with an RRP of £280, for £70, and Davies says denim is particularly popular because of the reduction in price.

“We tend to know the shopper, so know how it’s going to be looked after," says Davies. "People have worn the items and have enjoyed them, giving them back makes them feel like they’re doing some good, and getting something back even if it’s for a lower value.”

She adds that 5% of weekly revenue in the part of the store selling new stock comes from gift voucher sales to people who have sold their preloved items.

Davies advises: “If you want to grow your business easily by 5%, then do some circular selling. It’s bang on brand for us and has worked even better than I thought. I cannot tell you how surprised and delighted I am that it sells so well.”

The preloved rail on Black White Denim's shop floor

One staff member, Anna Wray, has responsibility for running the preloved section of the store, and the space that is dedicated to it depends on how much new stock the store has at the time and how many pre-loved items are being brought back. If a second-hand item does not sell within a reasonable amount of time, it is returned to the customer, and shoppers are encouraged to write the history of the item on cardboard tags.

Davies advises other independents that thinking of trying second hand to maintain standards: “Don’t take any old stuff. The more successful the seller is, the more they can start thinking they want to sneak stuff in – we make it very clear what we’re happy to accept. We have lots of happy buyers and sellers. When customers use their gift voucher, it does feel like free money.”

Black White Denim staff member Anna Wray, who manages the store's pre-loved section

Making a difference

Andy Saxton, strategic insight director at Kantar, believes  offering second-hand items can give retailers a point of difference that can help attract customers, but cautions: “It’s not something that retailers should rush into – they need to consider why their offering would be unique or different, such as partnering with a charity or something that benefits the local community.

In addition, "there are practical challenges such as store space, which is such a premium. Retailers will have reduced store space [during the pandemic], introducing second-hand clothing means making sacrifices.”

Saxton advises larger businesses to work with a specialist: “There’s a clear benefit to partnering with someone who has experience in logistics – it helps to get to market quicker, while ownership of the process will take time.”

Asda’s Wilson adds that the retailer is hoping for a halo effect that will encourage consumers to shop second hand, even if not at its own stores: “I genuinely believe that there is no best, right or wrong way to sell product in this category, and every business will encounter both challenges and opportunities.

"We believe that bringing second-hand clothing into mainstream retail, not only heightens the awareness of the charity shops and the unique garments that they sell, but is also an opportunity through scale and volume to drive change and make a real difference.”

Second-hand shopping is making its way on to the high street, and the forefront of customers' minds. Offering pre-loved items can be a clever way to add to revenue streams and maintain customer loyalty, while also improving the sustainability of a business.

Larger-scale retailers should consider partnering with those who have experience with the logistics of the field, while smaller brands and independent retailers may find it easier to launch initiatives they can manage themselves.

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