Second-hand: When reselling becomes more effective than traditional digital tools

After years of expansion driven by online advertising and social media, brands are now reaching a financial point of no return: customer acquisition cost.

According to Datareportal and Statista, the cost of a conversion via Meta Ads climbed by 61 percent between 2021 and 2024, while Google Ads increased by 44 percent. At the same time, click-through rates are eroding and net margins are shrinking, weakened by rising logistics and returns costs.

Exhaustion of digital levers

“Today, traditional levers on social media are structurally less profitable,” notes Aymeric Déchin, co-founder of Faume, the French platform that helps luxury and premium brands launch their own resale service. “A brand can spend from 40 to over 60 euros to generate an order, while the net margin on an item is often lower.”

This imbalance weakens an entire model, one of acquisition dependent on paid media and algorithms. Brands, exhausted by this race for visibility, are now seeking a more sustainable growth lever—both economically and ecologically.

Resale, a new organic acquisition channel

With traditional digital channels losing steam, is resale establishing itself as a fully-fledged acquisition tool? Long perceived as a parallel market, it is now becoming a proprietary channel for brands wanting to regain control over their pre-loved products and customer relationships.

“We observe that, on average, 70 percent of second-hand buyers are new customers for the brand,” explains Déchin. These first-time buyers, often under 35 years old, discover the brand through a reconditioned product and access its world at a more affordable price. Entry into the ecosystem occurs without advertising, via email, a newsletter, or a voucher—CRM channels with marginal costs.

This mechanism creates a virtuous acquisition loop: a customer resells an item; receives a gift card to spend on new or second-hand products; and a new buyer discovers the brand through this recirculated piece. Each step feeds the next, generating a cycle of loyalty and attraction at a controlled cost. By facilitating circular use, brands are seeing a significant increase in customer re-engagement without additional marketing investment.

According to Faume's internal data, the acquisition cost via resale is up to 60 percent lower than that of classic digital campaigns. Unlike advertising budgets, these investments generate sustainable assets: an enriched CRM database, an enhanced brand image, and a reduced environmental footprint.

Dynamic pricing, the model’s backbone

The mechanism works because it is based on a “science of pricing”. Using dynamic pricing technology developed in 2025, Faume helps brands adjust the buy-back and resale price based on the product's desirability, rarity and stock turnover. This approach, once reserved for new retail, is becoming an essential management tool for the second-hand market. It helps to avoid market saturation with low-value items, while maximising the profitability of iconic pieces.

According to Déchin, “price control is a key performance factor. It allows the brand to direct its offering, better manage its flows and preserve the perceived value of its products”.

By combining this pricing strategy with a premium reconditioning process—authentication, cleaning, delivery in official packaging—Faume aligns the second-hand experience with that of new products, guaranteeing trust and desirability.

Model at the crossroads of business and impact

Beyond economic performance, resale addresses a sustainability issue that brands can no longer ignore. Each garment returned to the market helps avoid between 15 and 25 kilograms of CO₂, according to the Quantis Textiles 2024 study. In 2024, Faume helped reduce over 4,200 tonnes of CO₂ emissions through reconditioning.

In a market where Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) indexed on carbon allowances are emerging, investors are seeking to quantify the climate impact of each activity. Having a model that can prove its effective decarbonisation is therefore a competitive asset.

For Faume and its partners, “avoided carbon” is becoming a tangible competitive advantage. This is an indicator that brands will be able to leverage with markets and consumers in the future.

Towards a new circular economy of capital

What is now at stake goes beyond a simple transformation of the consumption model. By integrating resale into their value chain, brands are redefining the very notion of growth. This is a growth that combines economic performance, cost control and impact reduction.

In a context where pressure on margins is increasing and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria are becoming essential for investors, the circular model is becoming a financial lever in its own right. It not only extends a product's commercial life but also captures new customer data and strengthens brand valuation. In other words, resale is no longer a “virtuous side project” but a genuine asset capable of influencing balance sheets as much as brand narratives in the future.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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