In Conversation With...
What was your inspiration & journey to starting Resale Future?
Growing up in India, I lived in a dichotomy – a world of incredible artisans where fashion is celebrated, with a booming export industry, but also the reality of breathing in fumes and seeing dyed rivers polluted from the textile factories. Moving to the UK, I was exposed to the stark difference in consumer consumption between the east and the west. At university, I’d see the same high-street dress bought multiple times by women all living within the same university halls. This was incredibly wasteful! I had to fix this - I had to learn very quickly about building tech and running a business. I decided to start my career in investment banking, where I worked with tech companies to raise financing. My experience here gave me a good understanding of the potential of the sharing economy and that our future would be dominated by AI, where customer experience will be extremely seamless and the need for user input to be an absolute minimum. Existing resale solutions were good at connecting the community but were not innovating to make the process of selling easier – the listing process was incredibly time consuming & was putting people off from circulating their garments. That’s where the idea of Resale Future was born.
What is Resale Future? What gives it the edge over other resale apps? Resale Future creates an online wardrobe of your past purchases, that sits within the Biscuit website. For the first time, customers can list items within 20 seconds on the brand’s own marketplace.
What are the benefits? You don’t have to worry about entering in information of the product or taking professional images – it is all taken care of for you once you choose which item you want to resell. Even when it’s time to ship your used item to the new owner, we can arrange a pickup from your home. Resale Future’s partnership with Biscuit is hyper-focussed on making the customer experience of resale seamless. There is no need to make a new account, simply log-in to the account you used to buy your Biscuit items.
Why Biscuit?
We were seeing large fast-fashion conglomerates launch their own take-back and resale schemes, often using it as a greenwashing tactic. However, Biscuit was a perfect collaboration as their resale channel is an addition to their already conscious practices & ethos. The brands that they stock are largely mid-sized contemporary brands producing responsibly. Customers can shop cult-favourite brands such as Ba&sh, Hayley Menzies & Stine Goya and recover its value when they’re done wearing it. From my first conversation with Amanda, Biscuit’s Founder, it was clear that her vision was forward looking. She understood that resale was the future and was excited to cater to the evolving needs of her customers. Previously resale was seen as something only the GenZ use – Our partnership with Biscuit has proved that this is not the case and that’s been incredibly exciting data.
Why is sustainability necessary, in particular circularity? Why should you get involved now?
74% of the average UK closet will never be worn again. We’re sending 1.75 million tonnes of clothing to landfill each year, most of which is underused clothing. Evolving styles lead to evolving wardrobes, but consumption cannot be sustainable without having a plan for where your item ends up.
Why should you get involved now? Evolving styles also means that the value of your item will decline the longer you leave it in your wardrobe. Our partnership with Biscuit sets you up to extract maximum value from that dress you know you will never wear again and the opportunity to give your items a second or even seventh home. With listing, selling, and shipping become easier than ever why wouldn’t you get involved now? Fashion is an important form of self-expression, not only representing how you show up to the world but also what you stand for. I would find it hard to believe anyone stands for landfills overflowing with garments barely worn.
