New Balance piloted resale before launching it in all 100 stores.
Brands are recognizing that resale is just one part of an omnichannel strategy and the way to tell a consistent story online and in stores, and they’re honing in on the ability to buy and sell used items at retail. One of those brands, New Balance, is adding an in-store trade-in program to nearly 100 participating locations, through a partnership with Archive.
“We wanted to figure out a strategy and a plan to get into the resale space. We actually conducted an apparel pilot several years ago,” said John Stokes, director of sustainability at New Balance.
The pilot revolved around apparel, but since most of New Balance’s business is footwear, the company wanted to find a solution for footwear. “Basically, we formed this small team internally and evaluated potential partners and what the approach should be,” Stokes said. “We just went through the process of looking at various options and did some modeling with some of those potential partners. We just felt comfortable with Archive.”
New Balance launched its marketplace in February and at that time had an in-store trade-in program available in about 6 to 8 locations. “We started to test out that process and work out some of the bugs. On the tech side, a lot of things have to talk to one another,” Stokes said.
Associate training and how the flow works in the store was studied. Consumers interact with an associate in the store who has an application on an iPad-like device. They can see what the trade-in amount of their product would be and then are issued a voucher card, which is like a gift card, towards a dollar amount off the purchase of a new item.
“It’s been well received by consumers,” Stokes said. “It’s also been really well received internally. It seems to be something that there’s a great deal of interest and excitement in and it really comes down to the execution and making it a good experience for people so that you can get the participation.”
Sustainability is a big deal to New Balance. The company just issued its annual sustainability report, where reducing Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 is a key goal. “We have some pretty aggressive sustainability goals,” Stokes said. “This resale program [trade-in online and in stores] is the first under that umbrella. We view it as one piece of the puzzle. Making this transition is not the end game. We’re able to learn quite a lot about our own systems and we can learn how consumers are behaving in this space and what they need, and overall, start to take step by step transitions and move things more toward a circular model.
“The company is doing really well and growing, so to trying to cut emissions in half at the same time is a big challenge,” he said. “We’re pursuing a lot of different things around renewable energy transitions and material changes.”
Archive’s cofounder and CEO Emily Gittins said the company was launched with the idea of keeping products in use as long as possible. Archive is powering the launch of trade-in in New Balance stores.
“We have some great launches under our belt, and are seeing a lot of great programs with some of our earlier partners,” Gittins said. “We’re seeing how they’re evolving and growing these programs over time to be really serious revenue streams. Now, we work with brands on damaged returns. We’ve evolved our technology to meet those needs.”
The trade-in program is bringing a new customer to New Balance and is building loyalty. “People are looking for great brands at a lower price where the brand is standing behind the quality of the product and has a branded way to shop,” Gittins said. “From a seller’s perspective, people are looking at how to maximize how much they get back and how easy that experience is. Going into a New Balance store and dropping off a past purchase and getting a gift card is a really seamless way to do it.”
A lot of product that’s going to come back to New Balance won’t be resellable. “It’s truly at end of life and what do you do with that,” said Stokes. “That’s a really active space for us right now as well as many other brands in the industry who are interested in that space and trying to scale some solutions for those products as well.”
