Carrefour now sells used clothing: the strategy it applies in Spain
Carrefour has launched a second-hand clothing sales test through the opening of corners in two of its hypermarkets located in Madrid and Barcelona, to analyze the viability of this new business with a view to extending it to more establishments in the country as well as other markets where the company operates.
"The initiative is part of our sustainability commitments, whose objectives include promoting circularity , and that has led us to test customer interest in these garments, the sale of which is well established in countries such as Germany ," says Beatriz González. , Director of International Textile at Carrefour.
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The company, which has joined forces with the firm specializing in second-hand clothing Patatam to develop the initiative, has obtained good results in France with a similar project , which will take it next year to extend it from eight to twenty hypermarkets in the country. .
Spain, the second country where it is launched, is important for Carrefour, not only because it is its second market in Europe for sales , but also because the purchase of second-hand clothes is not as developed as in the north of the continent, which can lead to conclusions for the subsequent expansion of the service. "If it is well received, it will spread to more centers," says Beatriz González.
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Since its launch, Carrefour has already sold 4,000 second-hand garments in the national market . The clothes are collected by Patatam, which triages them to identify those that are reusable, sanitizes them and distributes them. "There is room for any type of garment, the only thing we have done is define a perimeter of brands that we do not want to sell, for example, clothing from the competition ," explains the group.
Carrefour assures that the model is under review and that its main objective now is to improve it at all levels , both to attract interest from its customers and to sharpen its margins . 20% of the group's purchase receipts include textile products, which shows the weight of the category in a company that last year had a turnover of more than 9,000 million euros (US$10,445 million) in Spain.
Hypermarkets and supermarkets sell 28% of the clothing sold in Spain , according to data from Acotex. In fact, Alcampo is finalizing an initiative similar to Carrefour's. Textile companies such as Adidas, Kiabi, H&M, Benetton or Gucci are also exploring the potential of the second-hand clothing market.
TOWARDS MORE SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING
Carrefour signed The Fashion Pact in 2019, an agreement that seeks to reduce the impact of fashion on the environment and which also includes Inditex, El Corte Inglés, Mango, Tendam, Desigual, Adidas, Chanel, Gap, H&M and Nike, among others. other firms. Carrefour aims for all its garments to guarantee animal welfare in 2022; that 50% of its cotton is organic in 2025 ; and that all the natural raw materials of its TEX brand are sustainable and traceable in 2030.