Re-commerce programs keeping products in circulation are rising in popularity. This is a re-thinking of consumption closing the loop and providing brands and retailers with the ability to talk to sustainability impact in a substantive way. And these eight sustainable strategies extending the life cycle and creating further value deliver a win-win for brands, manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike. 

1. Refill – prioritizing upstream solutions to prevent waste generation at source

   Advances in refillable packaging help meet sustainability goals while driving growth and addressing rising consumer demand, regulatory pressures, and cost-saving opportunities. They foster long-term brand loyalty and amplify customer engagement and repeat purchases. Refills must be core to your brand ethos with multiple refill channels such as in-store stations, e-commerce subscriptions and home delivery options. In beauty where refillable is now mainstream, investing in first-line packaging that consumers don’t want to throw away enhances the appeal of subsequent refillable pouches. Eco-responsible French beauty house La Bouche Rouge offers clean formulas in refillable and recyclable boxes without any plastic. Their lipstick refills are paper-encased and compatible with their rechargeable leather cases made using offcuts from Paris tanneries.

   
   

2. Repurpose – incorporating discarded components into a completely different product 

   Delivering a unique benefit or alternative purpose, repurpose strategies foster innovation and can lead to the creation of value-added products. Repurposing is a promising strategy because products can be (partly) reused without applying any energy consuming recycling process, which often results in a loss of material quality. Circular product design could be an answer to use repurpose more effectively as products could be designed with this in mind. Nike’s Move to Zero initiative includes diverting 99 percent of all footwear manufacturing waste and more than one billion plastic bottles per year from landfills to create yarns for new jerseys and uppers for Flyknit shoes, and converting waste into new products, playgrounds, running tracks and courts through its Reuse-A-Shoe and Nike Grind programs.

   
   

3.  Repair – keeping products and materials in use by prolonging their lifespan Options for maintenance and repair of products is critical to a functioning circular retail economy. Lack of appropriate repair options leads to higher costs and growing quantities of waste, while many manufacturers void warranty protection when repairs are carried out by individuals or third-party operators. Often spare parts are hard to come by or cost prohibitive in comparison to a replacement, and deconstruction can be complex because the items haven’t been made with end-of-life consideration. UK department store Selfridges offers Repairs Concierge, a one-stop shop for direction on any repair needs available virtually and across all stores embedding a repair offer throughout the shopping experience. For example, seeing an opportunity to extend the life of a high volume, typically non-recyclable product such as sneakers, they launched a dedicated cleaning and restoration service in-store repairing over 11,000 pairs in 2021.

   
   

4. Re-sale – giving a new lease of life to pre-loved Re-sale retail is one of the fastest growing segments of the industry with a 2024 study showing that the global second-hand apparel market alone is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, growing 2.7 times faster than the overall global apparel market. With the equivalent of a garbage truckload of clothes burnt or buried in landfill every second, brands like Patagonia with its online Worn Wear re-sale program, and re-seller platforms like Debop and Vinted are changing the face of fast fashion and making cost-of-living strained consumer budgets stretch much further. For example, 65 percent of Vinted members have at least a quarter of their wardrobe made up of second-hand items, 84 percent think the quality of the item that they bought on Vinted is the same as of a new item and over half  report spending less money on fashion since they began shopping on Vinted (53 percent).

   
   

5. Rental – providing accessibility, try-before-you-buy, and negating need for expensive ownership 

   From fashion to tools, white goods to electronics, party needs to furniture, baby equipment to sports gear, rental is a powerful multi-tasing circular retail solution. But logistics and maintenance are challenging success. Several major US fashion brands experimented with ‘fashion subscriptions’ but their logistics supplier’s rental platform is facing legal and financial challenges. And the craving for variety limits the value proposition for rental customers of single brands. However, the subscription model does have its success stories while rental platforms such as Rent the Runway are viable options for a cost-of-living crisis. Phillips Lumea, a hair removal device, operates a subscription model enabling consumers to subscribe to a new or re-processed, tested and repacked product, and allows them to purchase it during the subscription period too. After the subscription period, devices are returned, and may be reprocessed, tested and repacked for another use cycle.

   
   

6. Refurbish – allowing consumers to return used products to be put back into the production cycle Beyond specialist op-shops, re-sale sites, and non-profit organizations focused on buying and re-selling used products, major retailers also offer buy-back programs including IKEA who offer furniture return for store credit. Buy-back strategies allow the retailer to authenticate, repair, refurbish and restore products before re-sale. Well utilized programs have long been heralded by tech companies like Apple and Samsung making it easy to ‘trade-in’ an old device when buying a new one to keep customers in their ecosystem. Research from a reverse logistics company facilitating take-back programs for Fortune 500 companies reveals customers spent 4.8 percent more after they became aware of the manufacturer’s take-back program. Walmart Restored consumers can buy refurbished electronics and appliances with a 90-day return option and at least a one-year warranty.

   
   

7. Recycling – keeping materials in use for as long as possible and extracting additional value  Recycling is fundamental to the circular economy by keeping materials at their highest use, in circulation, and out of landfills. Retailer recycling programs go a long way to mitigating waste challenges of over-consumption. Beauty retailer Sephora recycles returned clean and empty beauty product containers turn into carpets, pallets, asphalt and new packaging. Staples recycles used crayons through a program that sorts them by color, melts them into new crayons and distributes them to art programs at children’s hospitals. Ocado Retail’s packaging traceability partnership with Polytag applies UV watermarks to their milk range. The UV tags are invisible to customers but readable at Material Recovery Facilities providing the retailer with item-level data on where and when packaging is recycled and ensuring a more transparent and accountable recycling system. 

   
   

8. Re-distribution – rethinking how to manage waste Waste is a universal challenge across retail – from a surplus of unsold perishables to overstocked merchandise. More than just a logistical problem, waste is an enormous environmental and financial burden, affecting suppliers, supply chain teams, category managers, and store operations alike. Significant solutions in waste reduction involve a better understanding of demand, improving data integration, and using insights to make more informed, proactive decisions for reduction. With around one billion tonnes of food wasted annually, addressing this in production, distribution and service sectors is crucial for food security, environmental impact, and economic efficiency. Too Good To Go has helped save over 400 million meals from being wasted since 2016 with its app – the world's largest marketplace for surplus food. Food service providers can sell unsold food in 'Surprise Bags' for users to buy at 25-50% of original retail value, and retailers can unlock value from excess inventory with modular software that seamlessly tracks and re-distributes surplus food.

Transitioning to a circular strategy is a differentiator for retailers. And the secret to re-thinking consumption is Circana’s unrivalled supply chain solutions, data and analytics will optimize operations, improve forecasting and replenishment rates, enhance retailer collaboration, mitigate risks caused by disruptions, enhance customer experiences, and contribute to a more circular economy. Learn more in Circana’s Revitalising Retail Outlook Report.