The ITV actuality present Love Island final month introduced a partnership with eBay, with this yr’s contestants showcasing secondhand clothes as an alternative of fast-fashion items. And simply final week, former sponsor Missguided was purchased out of administration by Frasers Group for £20m.
What does eBay’s transfer inform us concerning the state of the retail trade? And what is going to the affect of the partnership be on customers, in addition to different excessive avenue and quick trend manufacturers?
ITV needs to encourage its demographic
Love Island has, till now, been synonymous with quick trend, having partnered with manufacturers like Missguided and I Noticed It First since its inception. Contestants usually proceed on this vein after they go away, occurring to entrance influencer campaigns for manufacturers like Boohoo and Nasty Gal, and within the case of Molly-Mae Hague, even being appointed because the UK and EU artistic director of Fairly Little Factor. Naturally, this pattern has drawn criticism, with the present being referred to as out for perpetuating a throwaway perspective in the direction of garments and contributing to the broader environmental and moral points associated to quick trend.
This yr, Love Island has determined it’s time for a change, and is partnering with second-hand market eBay as its sponsor. It introduced that contestants will put on secondhand or ‘pre-loved’ clothes as an alternative of latest items.
Commenting on the information, the present’s government producer, Mike Spencer mentioned: “As a present we attempt to be a extra eco-friendly manufacturing with extra deal with methods by which we are able to visibly present this on display screen…. We intention to encourage our demographic and present that there are unbelievable finds available and the way sharing is, in some small method, caring.”
We’ve got been grafting all winter… It’s time to carry the pre-love to Love Island ❤️
Residing the ‘eat, sleep, rewear repeat’ mentality, we’ll present a shared wardrobe for the villa ????#eBayxLoveIsland #PreLoved
— eBay UK (@eBay_UK) Might 19, 2022
Whereas Spencer means that ITV’s partnership with eBay goals to encourage viewers, it’s additionally a sign of the shifting attitudes of younger customers – and the behaviour that’s already happening.
In line with ThredUp’s 2022 Resale Report, secondhand trend displaced almost one billion new clothes purchases in 2021 that usually would have been purchased new. In the meantime, ThredUp discovered that just about two in three customers who store fast-fashion say they aspire to purchase extra secondhand clothes and attire as an alternative.
Dedication to the trigger will construct belief with customers
The pandemic has undoubtedly had an element to play within the altering priorities of customers, with youthful consumers specifically taking the time to re-consider their buying selections, and driving organisations to be extra purpose-driven.
Nigel Naylor-Smith, Head of Retail and Hospitality at Fujitsu UK, advised Econsultancy that this behaviour has since turned from consideration to motion.
“The shift in shopper mindset and behavior has been additional exacerbated by COP26, which confirmed that sustainable trend must be a precedence to show the tide on local weather change,” he says. “Undoubtedly, the Love Island partnerships group can have been listening, monitoring, and understanding that millennials and Gen Zs are invested within the eco-movement, that means their priorities are vastly completely different from earlier generations.”
However, is it only a publicity stunt? Naylor-Smith suggests not, and that it’s maybe too high-profile for ITV to threat tarnishing its status as an moral broadcaster.
“By Love Island endorsing ‘pre-loved gadgets’ it exhibits not solely their dedication to the trigger, nevertheless it additionally permits them to construct belief with customers – a significant trait for the youthful technology who’re uncovered to huge quantities of data on-line. And in the event that they’re seen to be greenwashing, they are going to actually be referred to as out and requested to supply onerous proof.”
Local weather change will not be the one motive the partnership may resonate with customers, in fact, with the rising value of residing additionally pushing individuals to search for less expensive options to the excessive avenue or throwaway quick trend. Certainly, ThredUp discovered that the primary motive Gen Z purchase used clothes is to economize, adopted by the will to be extra sustainable, then to have extra enjoyable when procuring.
Expertise is making it simpler to purchase and promote pre-loved clothes
So, it appears the resale market is rising, and whereas the likes of eBay have been round for years, new on-line marketplaces are actually driving this pattern, with expertise making it simpler for customers to purchase and promote attire than ever earlier than.
We’re actually seeing proof of this – Vinted posted a 63% year-on-year income rise for 2021. In the meantime, Depop’s enormous progress was recognised when it was purchased by Etsy in 2021 for $1.6 billion.
As McKinsey’s Anita Balchandani explains within the ‘McKinseys on Startup’ podcast, new resale platforms are feeding in to new shopper priorities. “I believe more and more the chance to increase the lifetime of a garment, or an object, has some very highly effective potential, by way of what it will possibly do to the carbon footprint of consumption, whereas nonetheless satisfying the intrinsic need that we, as customers, have for newness and self-expression,” she mentioned.
Certainly, new apps and marketplaces are designed to not solely fulfil the will to purchase secondhand, however in addition they provide a seamless (and addictive) expertise, providing customers an countless aisle of inspiration and alternative to find new methods to precise themselves. Therefore, we’re additionally seeing trend manufacturers themselves embrace secondhand marketplaces, in a push for general trade change. As McKinsey government editor Daniel Eisenberg explains, “Whereas a number of years in the past many gamers appeared cautious of those new fashions, extra are actually actually beginning to participate in them. They’re putting partnerships with on-line resale marketplaces and getting their clients concerned, whereas ensuring that the model nonetheless stays a key a part of the equation.”
One instance of that is Goal, which not too long ago partnered with resale-as-a-service platform ThredUp, to check launch a secondhand clothes initiative. As a part of the deal, Goal will provide round 400,000 ladies’s and youngsters’s gadgets from its owned manufacturers, in addition to extra curated from ThredUp’s personal assortment.
There are different indicators of main retail manufacturers embracing sustainability, too, with many investing in their very own resale or rental initiatives to encourage round trend (on prime of partnering with third-party marketplaces). French Connection has not too long ago turn into the primary UK model to arrange its personal rental service, frenchconnectionrental.com, enabling clients to lease clothes from its present collections reasonably than purchase outright.
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— French Connection (@FCUK) June 7, 2022
Is sustainable procuring going mainstream?
So, is secondhand actually going mainstream? eBay’s partnership with Love Island is certain to assist in the direction of making secondhand clothes extra of a mass pattern reasonably than a distinct segment trigger.
Fujitsu UK’s Nigel Naylor-Smith says that it’s prone to have a big effect, not essentially on customers, however on different manufacturers and broadcasters.
“…partnering with eBay has garnered the constructive publicity they should preserve relevancy. Arguably, that is simply the beginning of the pattern between actuality TV and sustainable partnerships.”
ITV will not be turning its again on quick trend fully, in fact, with campaigns nonetheless showing in Love Island’s advert breaks. Contestants are nonetheless sure to be chosen by these manufacturers after they emerge from the villa, too.
Nonetheless, one modern side of Love Island – demonstrated in more moderen collection – is that it permits viewers to purchase what they see on the present in real-time. With the clothes being secondhand, viewers presumably gained’t be capable of purchase the precise gadgets this yr, however they are going to nonetheless be capable of purchase related kinds by way of the ’Store the Present’ tab on the app, in addition to get their arms on their very own ‘Pre-Love Island look’ by way of the ITV Love Island hub.
Maybe the proof of any actual or long-lasting shift in the direction of sustainable retail will probably be within the gross sales – although whether or not eBay sees the identical form of uptick that Missguided did in its heyday stays to be seen. Regardless, it’s a strong message, and any constructive metrics for eBay will quickly inform us whether or not customers are actually shopping for in.
