The British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion, working with consultancy Clarasys, has released Customer-Centric Growth – A Playbook for Scaling Repair and Resale in Fashion. The report outlines how brands can make circular models like repair and resale truly work for both business and consumers.
Circularity is gaining attention across the fashion industry, yet progress remains uneven. Many customers still find repair services confusing or inconvenient, and resale platforms often struggle with trust and pricing concerns. Despite these challenges, the opportunity is clear. The global second-hand apparel market is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, growing almost three times faster than the overall apparel sector.
With most retail leaders anticipating major supply chain disruptions in the coming years, repair and resale are becoming more than sustainability goals—they are sound business strategies.
The report urges fashion executives to rethink how they design and deliver circular services. Some of its key recommendations include:
- Build tailored services. Use repair programs to strengthen loyalty with current customers, and resale to attract new ones.
- Focus on customer value. Highlight quality, convenience, and affordability—values that matter most to shoppers.
- Create clear incentives. Offer benefits like free loyalty repairs or fair resale payouts that motivate participation.
- Use data smartly. Track metrics such as customer lifetime value to build internal support for these models.
- Remove friction. Integrate repair and resale into the main customer journey rather than keeping them as side services.
Loic Le Fouest, Sustainability Practice Lead at Clarasys, summed it up simply: “Fashion brands that make repair and resale easy, visible, and valuable will win loyal customers.”
The report also examines common pain points. For repair, awareness, cost, and logistics are the main hurdles. In resale, sellers often face low returns, while buyers worry about authenticity and cleanliness. Successful examples from Selfridges, M&S, ACS, Depop, and Margaret Howell show that customer experience and trust-building are key to overcoming these barriers.
The takeaway is that circularity in fashion isn’t just a supply chain challenge—it’s a cultural shift. Brands that listen to their customers, pilot practical solutions, and commit to long-term strategies can build more resilient businesses while reducing environmental impact.
The path forward may not be simple, but it is clear: the fashion brands that center their customers in the journey toward circularity will be the ones that endure.
