Branded Resale Provider Trove Acquires Recurate, a Competitor in the Space

Trove, the resale operator for brands including Patagonia and Levi’s, has acquired Recurate, another branded resale platform, the companies announced Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As secondhand fashion booms, hundreds of brands have launched their own resale channels in recent years. Trove and Recurate are two different options for facilitating resale on behalf of retailers.

Trove specialises in a fully managed model of resale, operating the entire journey of secondhand commerce on behalf of its brand clients, from soliciting and processing pre-owned goods from sellers to building the resale website and fulfilling the goods sold to buyers.

Unlike Trove, Recurate offers brands a peer-to-peer resale model that doesn’t require inventory management or photographing hundreds, if not, thousands of pre-owned pieces as in unique listings. Instead, sellers are responsible for creating their own listings and shipping their products to buyers. This model allows for an easier integration of resale into an existing e-commerce platform and for faster scaling.

Recurate powers resale for brands such as Steve Madden, Michael Kors and Frye, which now become part of Trove’s roster of clients, including Eileen Fisher, On and Canada Goose. The addition of Recurate’s 29 brand clients means Trove will now generate 75 percent of total online branded resale traffic, the company said in a statement Tuesday. With Recurate’s technology, Trove can now launch and scale new resale programmes in as little as four weeks.

“This strategic acquisition strengthens our ability to provide brands with the tools they need to excel in the circular economy, offering greater flexibility and faster go-to-market solutions,” said Terry Boyle, who was named Trove’s chief executive in May.

Looking ahead, Trove is eyeing international expansion though upcoming partnerships in Europe.

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