Dive Brief:
- Entering the growing secondhand market, children's apparel brand Hanna Andersson has launched its own resale marketplace called Hanna-Me-Downs, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
- The new platform was made in partnership with retail technology company Archive, and sellers will be able to utilize Hanna Andersson’s descriptions, size charts, images, fabric information and more for their listings, per the release.
- Hanna Andersson is offering 125% more sale value for sellers with a gift card option, though cash transactions are also allowed.
Dive Insight:
Hanna Andersson enters the resale market knowing that childrenswear can be a particularly wasteful category.
“Kids are tough on their clothes, from crawling as babies to exploration and play as kids, and it’s typical for childrenswear to be discarded early in its lifecycle contributing to excess waste and landfill,” Aimée Lapic, CEO at Hanna Andersson, said in a statement.
Chief Sustainability Officer Jen Reed told Retail Dive that the company’s emphasis on creating durable clothing makes resale easy.
“We perform extensive wear and wash testing to ensure each new fabric and design holds up to our high standard. This uniquely positions us to provide a resale option for consumers who are looking to hand down their child’s clothes,” Reed said in emailed comments. “Hanna-Me-Downs was a natural next step in our journey – we have a sustainable product and it’s satisfying to know we’ve created a path to keep it on kids and out of landfills.”
Fair pricing on the resale marketplace is also a consideration for the brand, according to Reed, who said that “when the seller lists their product, Hanna-Me-Downs provides a suggested price based on the original list price and item condition.”
The creation of Hanna-Me-Downs comes out of customer testimonials about how their purchases have been passed on to new wearers, Reed added. Additionally, the sustainability chief said that the platform already has over 1,500 listings.
The company adds itself to an ever-growing list of companies launching their own resale websites. Canada Goose and Francesca’s both launched their own marketplaces in January through partnerships with Trove and ThredUp. J. Crew also announced a resale initiative last month, where it will sell a curated collection of its vintage pieces in select stores and launch a secondhand marketplace through ThredUp.
Resale has been a growing trend across the retail industry, even dominating at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference in January. In May, ThredUp and GlobalData released data from a survey of 3,500 U.S. adult consumers and 50 fashion retailers that predicted the secondhand market will more than double by 2026, reaching $82 billion.
Hanna Andersson’s resale launch follows news earlier this month that it created a children’s activewear line. The new line also touched on the topic of sustainability, with over 80% of the products being made from recycled fabrics.
