The Rise of Resale and Rental in Fashion
Bernadette Olivier has spent the last six years building one of the most interesting fashion marketplaces in Australia. As the co-founder of The Volte, a peer-to-peer fashion rental platform, she’s helped create a thriving ecosystem where thousands of women are renting out designer wardrobes and building businesses around them. Alongside that, she’s now building Seamlist, infrastructure that allows retailers to track, authenticate and even earn royalties when their products are resold or rented across the secondary market.
In today’s episode, Bernadette joins Bushy to unpack what the rise of resale and rental really means for retailers. While many brands have historically treated the secondary market as a threat, Bernadette argues the opposite: resale and rental could become one of retail’s most powerful growth channels. From the economics of peer-to-peer rental to digital product passports, circular commerce, AI search and the surprising demand for brands like Cotton On on the resale market, this conversation explores how retailers might finally start monetising the full lifecycle of their products.
Today, we’re discussing…
- How The Volte built a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace with over 5,000 lenders
- Why resale and rental don’t cannibalise retail; they expand it
- The surprising scale of the secondary market for high-street brands like Cotton On
- How Seamlist enables retailers to earn royalties when products are resold or rented
- Why digital product passports could transform authentication, resale and compliance
- How AI could finally unlock scale for the rental economy
- Why Bernadette believes your product is actually a marketing channel
Chapters
0:00 – Setting The Circular Fashion Stage
5:05 – Peer-To-Peer VS B2C
7:52 – Empowering Super Lenders: Building a Cottage Industry
10:49 – Introducing Seamless: Resale Infrastructure
12:47 – Blockchain and Digital Passports: The Future of Fashion
17:49 – Consumer Behaviour: The Shift Towards Resale
20:09 – Quality, Value and Sustainability
29:28 – The Impact of AI on Rental and Resale
32:35 – Retail Partnership and Consumer Engagement
38:02 – Achieving Profitability
42:05 – The Role of Expertise in Fashion Retail
Join us!
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