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Second-Hand History and Algorithms: The Case of Sellpy
Abstract
The resale of clothing and accessories is a phenomenon with roots going back centuries. However, little attention has been paid to the history of the thrift store and second-hand in its connection to sellers and how they have directed consumer choice towards the enhanced qualities of the garment, once detached from the connection to its original owner. Starting from the historical perspective, we focus our attention on the origin of resale and then on its recent contemporary history, particularly from 1970s onwards. In this analysis, we consider particularly relevant the narratives of sellers and buyers/consumers of second-hand fashion goods. Based on this approach, we investigate a case study of an online resale platform: Sellpy, founded in 2014 and that is pursuing an exponential plan of expansion fuelled by its parent company H & M, which bought 70% of the company in 2019. We had in mind to look at the two drivers of the fashion business—sustainability and IT—and how they support the strong growth of the second-hand market. The conclusions point out that much needs to be done in terms of sustainability within a business model that, although present since the fifteenth century, has never grown as it is growing today.
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Influencers have monopolized media attention in recent years, the result of a long process lasting two decades dating from the rise of blogging at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this article, I set out the historical framework in which the social media practitioners known as fashion bloggers and influencers have emerged and developed as relevant players in the field of fashion. I propose a reading of fashion blogging and influencing as a process articulated in four stages between 2000 and 2020. These two decades, marked by a progressive institutionalization of social media practice in the field of fashion, saw the advent of Instagram-based influencers in the second half of the 2010s and their continuing domination of fashion platforms, and TikTok's rise in relevance in the same field during the early 2020s. I first explore the rise of fashion blogs in the early 2000s and the scholarly debate regarding its characteristics. I then frame the transition from blogging to Instagram, not just as a change of platform, but as an opportunity for the invention of a new occupation, the influencer, and the consecration of the business of influence. Lastly, I critically examine the concepts of influence and influencer.
The sneaker resale industry has reached the value of $2 billion and it is expected to increase by 200% in the next 5 years. This has changed the purpose of sneakers from a wardrobe collection into a promising business opportunity. The aim of this study is to compare several algorithms and decide which one has a better performance in predicting sneaker resale prices. Different techniques like linear regression and random forest have been used to make the predictions using sneaker sales history data gathered from StockX. It turns out that both models produce an outstanding result with similar values. However, with further evaluation, it can be concluded that random forest has a better performance compared to linear regression in predicting sneaker resale price.
The fashion industry is one of the most wasteful consumer industries in the world. Through the advent of fast fashion – trendy, low-cost clothing produced by global fashion brands – clothing has evolved from a durable good to a daily purchase. In recent years, the concept of the circular economy, a framework for a more efficient, closed-loop economy, has emerged as a key way forward in the transition to a more sustainable and less wasteful fashion industry. This paper investigates how the Swedish fashion industry has implemented circular economy principles. Drawing on interviews with the founders, CEOs, and/or brand sustainability managers of 19 Swedish fashion brands, this article maps circular economy strategies across key stages: take, make, and waste. Crucially, for the fashion industry to move towards circularity, this paper argues that brands must integrate these strategies across supply chains, rather than limiting them to the waste stage. The analysis explores the gaps between circular economy principles and practice, identifying challenges inherent in fashion brand approaches. It concludes with recommendations for further study of the circular economy and the fashion industry.
This article examines the phenomenon of Instagram influencer “engagement pods” as an emergent form of resistance that responds to the reconfigured working conditions of platformized cultural production. Engagement pods are grassroots communities that agree to mutually like, comment on, share, or otherwise engage with each other’s posts, no matter the content, to game Instagram’s algorithm into prioritizing the participants’ content and show it to a broader audience. I argue that engagement pods represent a response to the material conditions of platformized cultural production on Instagram, where proprietary curation algorithms wrest knowledge and control of the labor process from producers. Cooperative algorithm hacking of this sort, although quite distinct from traditional organizing strategies, responds to the coercive force of the “threat of invisibility” that necessitates constant data production. They represent a collective attempt to exert some control over their “conditions of presence-to-others” and, in so doing, combat precarity and protect wages in the field. In a post-industrial economy where traditional models of labor organizing have struggled to address the conditions of platformized cultural work, I argue that the unusual phenomenon of Instagram engagement pods represents an organic form of worker resistance that responds to the unique conditions of these workers.
This paper explains how corporations can develop market-based activities to influence environmental policies. The empirical focus is on how Swedish apparel retailers qualify take-back systems for used clothes and textiles as steps toward creating circular fashion. An analysis of the qualities that retailers attach to take-back systems shows how qualification helps corporations feature fashion as potentially sustainable and able to develop circular material flows, with the aim to enroll staff, customers, and other stakeholders in new behaviors and patterns of responsibility. We apply the notion of corporate activism to demonstrate how corporations use qualification to engage in market-based activities with the aim of influencing the regulatory agenda.
The paper discusses the research carried out to analyse to what extent the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations, the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, and the Fashion Pact influenced the policies and practices of the signatory companies. Four of the ten fashion companies founding signatories of the UN Fashion Charter and the Fashion Pact were selected: Inditex, H&M, Burberry, and Kering. They represented two segments: mass-market and luxury. A thorough analysis of information publicly available from the fashion companies and organisations related to them was accomplished. The concept of National and Regional Innovation Systems was explored as a framework, for analysis and decision-making processes. The results showed that political initiative was decisive in guiding companies in their sustainability strategies, and collaborative activities with other companies, from new based-technology companies (NTBFs) to logistics.
Offering an original contribution to the field of luxury and fashion studies, this edited collection takes a philosophical perspective, addressing the idea that humans need luxury. From this framework it delves deep into two particular dimensions of luxury, emotions and society, and concludes with cases of brand building in order to illustrate the two dimensions at work. Comparative analysis between countries is brought together with an emphasis on China. Chapters address the ongoing growth in the market, as well as the significant changes in the sector brought about by fast international expansion and an increased focus on ethical supply and sustainability, making the book an insightful read for scholars of fashion business, luxury and branding.
Consumption of luxury goods is morphing into a diverse proposition where consumers are actively adopting new roles: besides buyers and users, they are sometimes becoming sellers of luxury branded products. This paper examines meanings and values attached to the process of selling luxury goods. To investigate this issue, eighteen women who had previously sold luxury branded items were interviewed. The findings demonstrated that the act of selling luxury goods challenges and shapes conventional meanings attached to luxury: Firstly, there is an alteration to the symbolic value of the item. The process around selling strips luxury items down to the object of a financial transaction hereby empowering the consumer. Secondly, consumers who sell luxury items engender change in their social role. For some, the act of selling used luxury items enabled a perceived higher social status, and for others it contributed to the boosting of their role as a sustainable consumer.
Rooted in a multi-method approach, both qualitative and quantitative, two successive studies were carried out to determine the relationships that consumers establish with their luxury products. Two fields of application were considered: second-hand luxury products and first-hand luxury products. Study 1 was based on the projective “Album On Line” technique, and used a sample of 32 customers. It examines the affective and cognitive representations of the way in which second-hand and first-hand luxury products are purchased. It shows that the purchasing of second-hand luxury products is linked to social climbing, eco-conscious concerns, brand heritage and windfall. It reveals that the purchase of first-hand luxury products is motivated by power, social ranking and quality. Study 2 used a causal approach on a sample of 280 customers of second-hand and first-hand luxury products. It examines how motivations to consume, consumption behaviours and consumer-brand relationships, change when one contrasts second-hand with first-hand luxury products.