Fleek, the social commerce marketplace building the supply of wholesale second hand fashion, has today revealed details of its rapid growth and how its unique marketplace is changing the game for vintage fashion sellers.
Fleek was co-founded by Abhi Arora and Sanket Agarwal with a mission to make second-hand first-choice. They realised that while consumers are embracing second-hand fashion at an unprecedented scale, the retailers and resellers who sell to these consumers face a major barrier – sourcing stock.
Buying and selling “pre-loved” clothing is now a huge industry. According to Ethical Consumer and The Co-operative Bank’s most recent Ethical Markets report, second-hand clothing sales have soared by nearly 50% as consumers shun fast-fashion in favour of more ethical alternatives. Pre-loved purchases have climbed to £1.2 billion with online marketplaces such as Depop and Vinted experiencing a surge in second-hand listings.
The problem with sourcing vintage fashion
The second-hand fashion supply chain is not set up to fulfil growing customer demand, it’s still mostly offline and highly fragmented. It starts with donations that consumers make, which find their way into warehouses of textile sorters, raghouses and local market dealers across the world. These businesses sort these clothing donations by category and condition, and they’re then resold, largely through brokers. The discovery of this stock has historically been difficult due to the offline, and often gatekept, nature of this market – we’re here to change that.
– Abhi Arora, co-founder, Fleek
Fleek’s social marketplace revolutionises the way business has historically been carried out in the second-hand fashion industry, using social features to help buyers discover and interact with global wholesale suppliers, and building out the infrastructure for payments and logistics to help facilitate the global trade for used clothing.
Before discovering Fleek, sourcing high-quality vintage and second-hand clothing was a time-consuming challenge. I spent countless hours scouring various websites, often struggling to find the right products at reasonable prices. Fleek transformed that process. Now, with just a few clicks, I have access to an incredible range of clothing that meets my standards. It’s been a game changer in accelerating our growth and elevating our business.
– Joshua Hendriks, Founder, The Moose Club Vintage
Benefiting from the platform’s interactive social features like video handpicks to connect directly with suppliers on video calls and hand-selecting the items they need based on budget and style, Fleek has enabled 10,000+ resellers, retailers and brands worldwide to purchase 2.5 million pieces of second-hand clothing to date.
The global second-hand apparel market is on track to grow three times faster than the overall fashion market by 2028, reaching an estimated $350 billion. This is great news for the planet, especially as fast fashion continues to take a heavy toll on the environment. We’re excited to be a part of the solution by making the second-hand buying and selling marketplace much more accessible.
– Abhi Arora, co-founder, Fleek