Can digital IDs turbocharge resale for brands? Pangaia thinks so

To become a Vogue Business Member and receive the Technology Edit newsletter, click here. In a pioneering move with transformative potential, sustainable clothing brand Pangaia is launching a resale platform on 5 September that will let customers buy and sell pieces with a click of a button, using the items’ digital IDs. The digital IDs include item information (size, colour, material and provenance) as well as authenticity credentials and links to the Rewear platform for an easy resell. When reselling an item of clothing becomes this easy — and trustworthy — then resale becomes much more appealing to the average consumer, says Pangaia. The platform is being launched in the UK, with an international rollout likely to follow quickly. It’s a big step forward from an earlier development in 2021 when Pangaia first partnered with New York-based digital ID startup Eon to tee up Pangaia products with digital IDs (via QR codes on garment care labels). These enabled consumers to scan items to view environmental impact information. The new concept has been developed with resale tech platform Archive, which has worked with the likes of Ulla Johnson, Oscar de la Renta and The North Face. It’s thought to be the first of its kind for peer-to-peer resale. This is Pangaia’s first foray into resale — and a step towards a circular business model, chief impact officer Maria Srivastava says. “The idea is very much to facilitate the fact that a product exchanges several pairs of hands in its lifetime.” The technology makes resale both easy and efficient, says Eon founder Natasha Franck. “With the digital ID, every product is pre-programmed for resale.” Franck says this new product identification concept is another stage in the development of the so-called internet of things (IoT), in which everyday products become increasingly connected to the web.“It will change how we sell and buy, and how customers interact with their physical products,” she says. “Just as customers go on the internet and buy in one click, now they tap their product and sell it in one click.” Pangaia’s peer-to-peer offering has had a lengthy gestation. “The ambition has always been to propel this vision of a more digital future through instant resale capabilities. It’s been in prep work for a very long time,” Srivastava says. She points out that it takes time to build up enough inventory to offer this type of programme. Though Pangaia has been doing so for two years, because of the necessary buffer period, customers will also be able to manually find their products if they don’t have a digital ID. “We built the service like we usually do [for this reason], Archive founder and CEO Emily Gittins says. “But it’s nice to be able to take that step out entirely as well.” The digital IDs will also deliver guidance on pricing. Sellers will be recommended a figure based on the historical retail price and condition of the item. They can choose whether or not to stick to it — within “certain parameters”, Srivastava says. “We want to preserve the value of the product, in the state that it’s in.” Pangaia describes this as the first step on a journey to full circularity. Srivastava paints a picture of where Pangaia wants to go: “In the future, we want to be able to create systems and infrastructure that are able to channel, say, our non-resellable goods to a network of recycling parts partners; aftercare offerings for our higher-value items like flower down; subscription rental for children. We're really pushing to close the loop completely.” In financial terms, digital IDs help brands to make money off resale. “You can do resale today, but it’s usually inefficient and not profitable,” says Eon’s Franck. Currently, to run a resale programme, retailers have to start by retrieving their products from consumers — if they can. Consumers currently have an abundance of places to place inventory, ranging from The RealReal to StockX to Depop. “Digital IDs reduce all the inefficiencies and move products back into brand preferred and profitable resale channels,” Franck explains. Archive’s Gittins expects digital IDs to become the new norm as brands take ownership of their own resale. “It improves the consumer experience,” she says. “And, we’re seeing more brands want to adopt over time.” It’s a no-brainer, according to Franck. “Just as you wouldn’t run a business today without the barcode, in the near future you will not be running resale programmes without a digital ID.” Correction: The story was updated to reflect the correct Pangaia representative Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.

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