Why More Companies Are Getting in on the Resale Game

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For a long time, conventional wisdom ruled that companies should avoid reselling their own products in used condition. There’s the threat of cannibalization, marketing confusion, and tricky logistics that can erase margins. But more name-brand retailers are jumping into resale, says Wharton marketing professor Tom Robertson. Thanks in part to Gen Z with its zeal for sustainability, he says consumer demand is rising fast for reused goods. He sees a revolution where brands cash in on resale, knowing that if they don’t own those customer relationships and sales, others will. Robertson wrote the HBR article “The Resale Revolution.”

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0:00.0	When leadership advice feels like buzzwords and platitudes, it's time to get real.
0:05.9	HPR's podcast Coaching Real Leaders brings you behind closed doors as Muriel Wilkins coaches anonymous
0:11.9	leaders through raw honest career questions
0:14.6	that we all face.
0:15.9	Listen and follow coaching real leaders for free
0:18.3	wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the HBR Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish. You know the feeling. You buy something you think is going to work for you and then for
0:50.0	whatever reason you don't use it. You can sell it online, put it in a donation
0:55.1	bin, throw it away, or just leave it in the back of a closet. One estimate is
1:00.4	that the average U.S. household has a trove of reusable goods worth more than $4,000.
1:07.0	There is a similar pattern internationally.
1:10.0	There has always been a strong resale market for used goods, but usually the companies that
1:16.4	originally sold those items new have ignored resale, until now.
1:22.1	Thanks to a generational shift that is prioritizing sustainability and reuse,
1:27.0	companies that once saw product resale as a substitute or competition
1:32.0	now see it as a strategic opportunity and big brands
1:36.2	like Apple, Nike and Rolex have gotten into the resale game themselves.
1:41.1	Joining us to talk about this is Tom Robertson, a marketing professor and
1:44.9	former dean at the Wharton School. He's the author of the HPR article
1:48.9	The Resale Revolution. Welcome Tom.. Well, thank you.
1:53.0	It's great to be here.
1:54.0	Let's start with the catalyst here.
1:56.0	I mean, the title of your article is Resale Revolution.
	...

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