eBay UK have announced a Community Clothing Collection in partnership with Patrick Grant (most recently known as a judge on the The Great British Sewing Bee). The collection will launch exclusively on eBay on the 7th of September.
The hero piece of the collection is a single-breasted waterproof raincoat, crafted from British Millerain pure cotton twill.
A fully-lined Harrington jacket has a slim-fit design boosted by a two button collar and ribbed cuff and waist bands. Both come in navy and khaki, classic colours for designs that are built to last.
As a eBay seller your immediate reaction is probably “So what” or “Why bother”, so I put these questions to Rhian Bartlett, Director of Fashion Retail at eBay.
Community Values
Rhian explained more about the collection, which utilises clothing factories’ slow periods for its production to create jobs, harness specialist skills and regenerate businesses. It addresses urgent issues that British textile and manufacturing factories are facing, including seasonality of demand. Put very simply there are times where all the workers in a factory could potentially be laid off and re-employed later in the year and this clothing collection aims to provide work in the slack periods.
By selling direct to consumer, Community Clothing and eBay will offer competitive price points, across the entire collection. Unique selection and value is at the heart of Community Clothing. As such, Patrick has engineered a unisex collection of simple, functional and hard-wearing designs. Fittingly for a British-made collection, outerwear is key (Don’t expect the sunny weather to last much longer); finishes are minimal, lines clean and details simple.
Rhian explains that Patrick’s ability to understand shoppers and respond to them in non-traditional ways echoes the original philosophy of eBay, which was founded 21 years ago with one intention of creating trading opportunities for all.
What does it do for me?
So the values of the Community Clothing Collection are aligned with eBay’s core philosophy. That’s nice but how does it help you and your business on eBay?
Rhian told me that this initiative is another in a program of activity which aims to place eBay as the first destination of choice in a consumer’s shopping journey.
As with eBay’s Restoration Live at the Silverstone Classic giving the message that eBay should be the first place you go to when looking for car parts and accessories, this new Community Clothing Collection says that eBay should be the first place you to go when looking for fashion.
This message harks back to Devin Wenig’s recent words at Re/code when he said “I’d rather have a billion unique items that arrive in three days than a billion commodity items that arrive in an hour“. Basically he doesn’t see eBay as being an Amazon (which is rapidly turning into the place where you’ll buy your household essentials). Devin sees eBay as the place where you’ll find the unique, different and exciting.
eBay is ‘The’ Shopping Destination
With the high profile of Patrick Grant, there will be a lot of media and consumer interest in the new collection when it launches. eBay will be the only place where consumers can purchase the Community Clothing and whilst on the site shoppers will be exposed to other fashion brands, clothing from other sellers and naturally there will be a spill over into other categories.
While eBay have told us nothing specific, look out for more marketing promotions this year along similar lines. ‘Start your shopping journey on eBay’ is what they want to say but, with both the activity at Silverstone for motor parts and accessories and now the Community Clothing Collection, the message is vertically targeted and aimed at an audience which will be receptive to the message, have probably used the site before and are ready to engage with eBay and start buying.
Anyone who’s ever met me will know I’m no fashionista, but I like what eBay are doing – More buyers is good for everyone.
2 Responses
I’m all for something which appears to be trying to help our own country and workers first, rather than pouring money into coffers overseas.
I find it ironic that Devin Wenig says he wants unique items, but then eBay insists on barcoded structured items. The 2 seem diametrically opposed.