Dive Brief:
- After raising funds and plotting an international expansion, Trove, the re-commerce platform, has promoted Gayle Tait to become its new CEO, the company announced on Wednesday.
- Andy Ruben, who has served as CEO since founding the company in 2011, will transition from CEO to executive chairman.
- Tate has served as Trove's president and as a member of the board since 2021. Prior to joining the company, she was the managing director of global retail and payments activation at Google Play and spent 15 years in various roles at L’Oréal.
Dive Insight:
Trove has appointed a new CEO as the company capitalizes on the rising used clothing market.
Trove, which powers resale for companies like Allbirds, Lululemon, Patagonia, REI and Eileen Fisher, appears to be positioning itself as a go-to platform for brands to establish their re-commerce operations. Trove enables brands to scale their re-commerce channels, but maintain their data and customer relationships.
The company cited a First Insight survey, which says 65% of shoppers want to buy secondhand merchandise directly from brands or retailers.
“I look forward to welcoming even more innovative brands, so they can reach and convert new customers, increase customer lifetime value, and tap additional revenues, all while significantly reducing their environmental footprint,” Tait said in a statement.
Last August, Trove raised $77.5 million in Series D funding, which it said it would use to add more partnering brands, enhance its technology and logistics infrastructure, enter the luxury market and attract European customers.
A report from ThredUp last year predicted that the used apparel market could reach $77 billion by 2026. The report also noted 42% of retailers said used clothing would be “an important part of their business.”
Now that the re-commerce market is expected to rise, brands and retailers have unveiled and grown their own resale programs or teamed up with other platforms to reach customers. Companies like Fabletics and Dick’s Sporting Goods have recently introduced resale programs. Following a pilot in Texas and California, Lululemon announced in April that it will offer its resale option nationally. That same month, Target announced that it is piloting a secondhand clothing marketplace in collaboration with ThredUp.
