Some items need a little bit of a polish to give them the best chance of being sold – we think this is a really important way of reducing the problem of unsold inventory.
Fashion is trapped in a broken cycle. Trends come and go at breakneck speed, creating stress and waste for brands, people and natural resources. Clothing is worn not only to insulate our bodies but also as an outlet for creative expression, a source of joy, and to provide a sense of belonging. Fashion is, of course, a really important part of our lives, but sadly, it’s also a significant contributor to the climate crisis, so we must build a smarter fashion industry.
A fashion item that is produced with materials from the earth and creative passion from people, shouldn’t collect dust in a warehouse or end up in a landfill. Instead, at Otrium, we see a future where every clothing item produced is worn. This is our purpose, however, there's a long way to go – around 12% of all items produced are never sold.
Together with our brand partners, we give unsold items the best chance of finding an owner. Otrium helps labels do this in 3 key ways:
1. Polish & Match
We polish up every piece we receive at our warehouses, ensuring they’re perfect before featuring them on our platform; giving each item the best chance of being matched with one of our 3.5 million fashion-loving members.
2. Creating Data-Made Fashion
We’re pioneering Data-Made Fashion to remove the guesswork from clothing creation. Data-Made Fashion enables brands to produce items based on the sales data of existing successful pieces, shopping habits, and customer demand.
3. Repair & Refurbish
Around a quarter of all industry-wide e-commerce fashion sales are returned, often slightly damaged and unable to be resold. Otrium repairs and refurbishes necessary items, meaning we’re able to restore and sell over half of all returns.
Behind the scenes, we go to great lengths to ensure that all clothing produced is worn. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at one of our key pillars: Polish & Match, sharing with you why it’s so important to us and how it works.
Why we polish & match items of clothing
A lot of the clothes we receive from our partners are already in near-pristine condition, but could benefit from a few small improvements to give them the absolute best chance of being sold.
These amazing pieces then deserve to be matched with one of our fashion-loving members, so that they can be worn and truly appreciated for many years to come. We use pioneering data-led technology to ensure they’re introduced to the right person who will think that the particular item is magnificent, and totally to their taste.
This is important because without a Polish & Match, many of these items would join the many millions of others that are pretty much perfect, but aren’t able to shine through and be matched with an owner. These end up unsold, sitting in warehouses or even lying in a landfill site somewhere. As a business, we’re steadfast in preventing this from happening.
How we polish & match items of clothing
Firstly, we receive the items at one of our state-of-the-art warehouses where one of our team will personally decide what could be done to give it the best chance of finding a new owner.Then, the polishing begins; sometimes we take better photographs, write product descriptions, press garments, steam, and add new packaging. These are all things that can ensure these fabulous items are ready to be matched with a fashion lover through our cutting-edge platform, to then be worn and loved.
Polish & Match is one of the primary ways we’re revolutionising the world of fashion through technology; to make sure all clothing is worn and waste in the industry is consigned to the history books.