Tackling fast fashion is no easy feat. Style trends are ever-changing and fast-fashion haul videos are peaking in popularity. This movement towards low-cost, low-quality, hyper-trendy clothing has been around since the late 1990s, led by retailers such as H&M, Zara, and Topshop. There has long been a stigma against re-wearing styles or buying pre-loved clothes, but attitudes around thrifting are quickly changing. Today, in 2022, 93% of people are open to purchasing clothing secondhand, a 48% increase since 2016. Nowadays, we know fast fashion’s impact on Earth’s environment and the people who inhabit it is less than sustainable long-term. Here is how one innovator is taking a stand against harmful fast fashion practices.
While fast-fashion shops such as SHEIN, Cider, and Fashion Nova are popular brands featured in TikTok haul videos, buying hauls of second-hand styles has been rising in popularity as well. Online secondhand marketplaces, such as Mercari, Depop, Vinted, and eBay, are all making it easier for consumers to purchase clothing without contributing to the fast fashion industry. Some of these marketplaces are even oriented toward certain types and styles of clothing. Depop, for example, is highly trend oriented and is a great option for young people looking to keep their closets up to date. The platform has a fresh, contemporary feel, carrying vintage and unique clothing to fit a variety of alternative styles or aesthetics. Users can buy and sell their wardrobes through the platform, keeping clothing waste from purchasing new items at bay.
As many benefits as these marketplaces have, having to browse each individual website in search of an item may be awkward and certainly time-consuming for the majority of consumers. A new solution, called Beni, uses AI technology to make this process significantly easier.
So, how exactly does Beni work? The new browser extension helps shoppers browse resale alternative websites across the internet in a matter of seconds. Beni helps shoppers browse resale alternative websites across the internet in a matter of seconds. With Beni, shoppers can find a product they like on one of the 700+ Beni-supported apparel and accessory sites, get curated options for that product from leading resale sites, and find their favorite secondhand option and navigate to the resale site to make a sustainable purchase. As a browser extension, Beni can easily be added to a shopper’s desktop and be seamlessly applied during the consumer’s purchase process - without the consumer needing to take time to add an additional step to buying secondhand. According to GlobalData, 93% of shoppers want to buy secondhand but only 50% actually do. With Beni, the barriers to shopping secondhand online are removed completely and a large portion of the market of consumers who want to buy clothes sustainably is captured. The team at Beni is dedicated to reducing fashion’s burden on the planet as they have the vision to build a world where resale is the new norm.
Since becoming a browser extension in August of 2022, Beni has been helping online shoppers find pre-loved alternatives to new styles found on premium retailer's websites such as REI and Aritzia. "Our goal is to make resale just as easy and convenient as buying new," said Sarah Pinner, CEO and co-founder, Beni. "While today most of us understand the financial and environmental benefits of resale, it still takes too much time and energy to find the pre-loved items we want. Beni solves this problem for the first time, making the secondhand shopping experience frictionless. In doing so, we believe that shopping resale can become the new norm – a win for our wallets, our closets, and our planet."
To conclude, we wish to make modern fashion more sustainable. By supporting relative solutions like Beni, we believe this will help to fulfill our vision of enhancing the resale concept and alleviate the burden fashion could have on our planet Earth.
Visit Beni at https://www.joinbeni.com/