Trading in pre-loved fashion: momox fashion shows how it's done
Pre-Loved fashion isn’t a trend, it’s here to stay! But anyone who wants to be successful in this space needs more than just good products – it’s all about the right strategy. One company that has mastered the Pre-Loved game is momox. For over 10 years now, they’ve been giving used fashion a new home, among other places on eBay, through momox fashion.
What’s behind the success of momox fashion? And what can you take away from it? Julia Koenen, who is responsible for the marketplace area at momox fashion, answers these questions for us.
Also back on the podcast: our colleague René Uhlworm, Senior Category Manager in the Pre-Loved fashion area. He knows what retailers should pay attention to when selling Pre-Loved fashion and shares helpful tips so you can get everything right in the future.
Curious? Then listen in now!
**Important Links**
- momox fashion’s eBay Shop
- eBay for Business on Facebook
- eBay for Business on Instagram
- More info on the eBay podcast „Alles top. Gerne wieder!“ and our podcast hosts
** Chapter markers **
- 00:00:00 to 00:02:44: Intro
- 00:02:44 to 00:07:34: momox fashion on eBay
- 00:07:34 to 00:18:48: Item conditions, inventory and the ideal marketing mix
- 00:18:48 to 00:23:07: Development of Pre-Loved fashion, trends and seasonality
- 00:23:07 to 00:24:19: Outro
Isabell: Pre-Loved hasn’t been a trend for a long time anymore. Especially Pre-Loved fashion is more in demand than ever. But anyone who wants to be successful in this area needs more than just good products. It’s all about the right strategy. Today we’re taking a look at a real success story. momox, one of the best-known companies in the Pre-Loved space, has been successfully selling on eBay for over ten years, among other things with momox fashion. But what strategies are behind the success of momox fashion? And what can you take away from it? You’ll find out that and more right now.
Julia: We can already clearly see that premium brands perform well. In principle, we’re interested in extending the product lifecycle. And of course, that works much better with premium brands. High-quality brands with a longer lifespan simply sell really well, whereas fast fashion, sometimes with lower quality, is just not suitable for the second-hand market and, I think, is also not what the customer is necessarily looking for from us.
Isabell: Welcome to "Alles top. Gerne wieder!", the eBay podcast all about commerce and e-commerce. I’m Isabell Butterwegge, and today we’re taking a closer look at the world of Pre-Loved fashion and the success of momox fashion. And we’re looking at what you can learn from it for your business. And for that, I have two great guests with me in the studio today. First, Julia Koenen. Julia is responsible for the marketplaces area at momox. Hi Julia, great to have you here!
Julia: Hi Isabell, thanks a lot for the invitation. I’m really happy to be here.
Isabell: I’m really happy too. And René is here as well. René Uhlworm is Senior Category Manager and responsible for the Pre-Loved fashion area at eBay. A warm welcome to you too, René.
René: Hello Isabell, hello Julia, thanks a lot for the invitation. I’m really excited. This is my second time here.
Isabell: That’s right, you’ve been here before. Before we dive into the world of Pre-Loved fashion, we’d like to give our guests the chance to share a bit about themselves personally. And to start with, I wanted to ask if you could share a fun fact about yourselves. Julia, would you like to go first?
Julia: I don’t even know if this is a fun fact, but when it comes to second-hand... if I look back about five years, I didn’t have a single second-hand piece in my closet. And after five years, probably 50% of my wardrobe is second-hand, and it’s so much fun, and I’m really happy about it.
Isabell: Mine actually looks very similar, I can agree with you there. René, a fun fact about you.
René: I surprised myself last week. I know eBay is cool, but how cool eBay is, I realized because we keep sponsoring brands, especially in Berlin. And now also around Fashion Weeks and various other fashion moments. And one of the brands is really a brand that Beyoncé wore during her last tour, the Renaissance Tour, so we’re cooler than ever.
Isabell: Ah, very cool. Then let’s dive into the world of momox fashion. Julia, momox fashion is one of the biggest providers of Pre-Loved clothing on eBay. But how did it all start?
Julia: Good question! It all started 20 years ago. The company was founded in Berlin under the name momox. And we initially started by buying books and media. We then sold them through our platform medimops.de and also, among other places, on eBay. And the fashion division started ten years later. Since 2014, we’ve been selling under the name "ubup", and since 2021 it’s been known as momox fashion.
Isabell: Ah, so your eBay account has actually existed for ten years.
Julia: Yes.
Isabell: Wow, then first of all congratulations on the anniversary. And René, you manage momox fashion on eBay. Can you describe a bit what makes the collaboration special for you?
René: I need to ask a question first. Is it possible that you first had an eBay account and then your own store?
Julia: I think we started with both at pretty much the same time.
René: Oh cool! Sorry, back to your question. I love the partnership with momox because it’s a real partnership. eBay doesn’t sell or buy Pre-Loved goods itself, so... it’s not competing on its own platform either, it’s a real partnership. We learn together, and in today’s strongly growing second-hand market, it’s really great to learn together: what do customers need? Whether it’s Gen Z or all generations. Many customers and Pre-Loved customers, and quite rightly so, have high expectations when it comes to customer service and information before purchase. And learning that together is a lot of fun for many people.
Isabell: I can very well imagine that. Julia, you just said that your wardrobe is now more than 50% Pre-Loved fashion. And that’s basically what we’ve seen over the past few years. A lot of Pre-Loved fashion has simply gained a huge amount of importance. You’ve been active for ten years now—how has the eBay account developed over that time, in your view?
Julia: Overall positive, I’d definitely say. In recent years, we’ve spent a lot of time continuously improving the shopping experience for our buyers on eBay. We always want to understand what drives customers. Why do they buy on eBay? And we start with our product listings. The more information we can provide about each individual product, the better. More photos, product details—that’s a very, very important topic for us. But also improving processes, fast shipping. So there are lots and lots of things we’ve done right in recent years.
Isabell: René, can you confirm that development?
René: Definitely. What’s great is that we don’t stand still. And that’s really, really important—that we keep developing together and try everything eBay offers. eBay renews processes. eBay launches new tools to reach customers and provide better customer service. And what’s great in the partnership with momox is that we try everything together. That doesn’t mean everything works. But in principle, it’s about finding the best marketing mix for both customers and momox. And on the other hand, of course, keeping the eBay community in focus. That we keep stepping back and asking: Is this the right thing for our community together, and are we doing the right thing?
Isabell: How do you approach that in relation to the community?
René: Valuing the community, meaning how you address the community, how you address our customers, and always putting your heart into it. For example, I got to know the colleagues from your customer service and they’re super lovely. And that aura. We’re in a digital medium, and you can really feel that, and I can only recommend to everyone to approach it with a lot of love and heart. And that’s exactly what our community expects, and rightfully so.
Isabell: Approaching it with a lot of love and heart. Julia, you just said that you’ve learned a lot over the past few years regarding your product presentation. Do you have any more tips on what you found that really worked well?
Julia: Well, first of all, we clearly try to follow your tips when it comes to the whole product listing topic: the title is super important. But of course, especially in the second-hand area or in fashion generally, we see that many photos are good, and the more details we can provide per item, the better. And to be fair, that benefits not only our eBay shop, but also our own shop.
Isabell: Speaking of your own webshop, what role does it still play for you?
Julia: An absolutely central role. What’s great about our own shop, and also eBay as an additional sales channel, is that we can try out a lot. We often see that many things that work on eBay also work really well in our own shop and vice versa. That means we can always test a lot there and we learn from both platforms.
Isabell: Do you have an example?
Julia: For example, the topic of item conditions. We’ve had that in our momox fashion shop for a long time. We know how important it is for our customers that we offer different item conditions. And that’s now something we also have on eBay, where we immediately knew: of course, we’ll do that, it brings great added value for our customers.
Isabell: Item conditions aren’t really new for us, are they, René?
René: In the first quarter of this year, we launched the new item conditions for used fashion items. You can now cluster your Pre-Loved items into "excellent", "good" and "acceptable". And that’s exactly what we knew from momox would work really well. I think it’s been over a year and a half since Julia first called us: "Are you doing this too?"
Isabell: Very nice, that’s also super practical and very intuitive. Julia, you sell Pre-Loved fashion. That means you actually only ever have one item per eBay listing. So you already have a very, very high, enormous amount of work to constantly relist all these offers and photograph everything again and again. How do you approach the topic of product photos?
Julia: Yes, that’s really exciting. I once had the chance to look at the process ourselves in our warehouse and see how it all works. And it’s completely different depending on the product. Some items are photographed on a mannequin, others on a hanger, then some on a table. And it’s a really great process, which of course is also very, very time-consuming. But in the end, it always results in really beautiful product photos.
Isabell: That sounds very, very well optimized. You’re certainly ahead of your competition in many ways. Are there any other things where you’d say you already have a competitive advantage over others?
Julia: We’re trying to integrate AI into our new processes a lot. As we know from eBay, but also from our own platform, it’s essential that the more product information and descriptive attributes we provide for our customers, the more fun the treasure hunt is. And that’s exactly where we rely heavily on AI. Simply extracting descriptive attributes from the product photo and then using them for sales.
Isabell: And how big is your assortment?
Julia: Very large. Right now we have over 1 million products.
Isabell: 1 million. Wow!
Julia: From 2,000 brands. So there really is something for everyone. The largest share is clothing, but also accessories and shoes. And exactly, everyone really finds a great piece for themselves there.
Isabell: But I assume they’re not all listed at the same time, they come in little by little?
Julia: Exactly, of course. New products are added every day. You can see that in both shops too. It’s always clear which of our new products they are. New brands are added. We naturally have our own team that takes care of the whole topic of brands and products. They always look at: what are the current trends? What’s in demand right now? What do our customers feel like buying?
René: Perhaps it’s very important to note here that, given momox’s size, the good thing about eBay is that they don’t cannibalize. That means they don’t take away visibility from small and medium-sized sellers, which is truly what our heart is all about, but rather that’s the beauty of it. What we see is that we’re stronger together. That means the sum of all our sellers, together with momox, makes more of a difference and is much stronger than the individual retailer. So don’t panic now because momox has 1 million items—that’s great. It means I, as a small or medium-sized retailer, can also go live on eBay with my Pre-Loved shop, my cute second-hand shop somewhere in Charlottenburg. Please do! Because that’s exactly what defines us. And momox is not the threat; rather, together we have a lot of visibility. And I can only encourage everyone to do that.
Isabell: It ultimately makes for a good inventory mix on our platform that we simply have something for everyone across the board. René, you just casually mentioned that you’ve tried out a lot with momox fashion in the marketing mix. What exactly did you do there and what did you find worked well?
René: What worked very well was momox’s trial-and-error mentality. We tried out a lot. On eBay, it’s not like there’s one marketing tool that makes everything work or causes everything to work. Instead, every assortment has its ideal marketing mix, and that’s exactly what we tested. And momox also had the willingness and desire to try it out together with us. In 2023 we also had marketing events that didn’t work. That means we learned and kept going. And that’s exactly the beauty of it: always testing the optimum for retailers and customers. And taking along everything that eBay launches new. We have a new advertising cockpit, we have new item conditions. Every day something new comes up on eBay. And that’s exactly where the collaboration with momox comes in: trying again and again, what can we do? Where are we up to date? And what does the customer actually want to see?
Isabell: And if you had to sum up one tip for our viewers, what would you like to give them?
René: I’d start with the mindset. I’d start with the mindset of giving something back to the whole community. Saying: Hey, our Pre-Loved buyers have a smaller budget for fashion. But that makes them all the more happy about a great branded item in great quality. Take that as the starting point, put yourself in the buyer’s shoes, and look at the processes. When it comes to fast customer communication, friendly customer communication. Especially when it comes to the whole topic of returns. React quickly there too, even when it comes to refunds—our customers have the same expectations as everyone else.
Isabell: Julia, what would you recommend?
Julia: I think I agree with René there. It’s an interplay of many factors. There isn’t one single tip I’d like to give, but I do see that we should keep the entire sales experience or customer experience in view. That starts with fair pricing. It continues with great brands that we have available or offer to customers. And again, the topic of product descriptions. I mentioned it earlier, but it’s simply essential in the second-hand sector. And if we keep all of that in view, we can create a really great shopping experience for our customers.
Isabell: Yes, and before we talk in a moment about which marketing tools momox fashion uses on eBay exactly and how the market is developing, I’m interested in your opinion: Are you already active in this area? What experiences have you had on eBay? Feel free to exchange ideas with like-minded people in the eBay community or on our Facebook page eBay for Business Deutschland". We’re already looking forward to your stories.
Isabell: René, you’ve already said several times that we’re of course continuously working to make new tools and new things available to retailers so they can manage their business on eBay even better. Which tools can be used to help market Pre-Loved products optimally and perhaps also reach new target groups?
René: Sounds super boring, but the listing on eBay is absolutely crucial. A Pre-Loved listing, as you just said, it’s single items, which means one listing per size, per color, per product group. And that’s exactly where it’s worth taking another look and listing better, because at the end of the day you want the customer to find the item. Sounds boring, but it’s the easiest way to success. Then there’s something I think we all do: coupons. eBay offers Pre-Loved sellers the chance to participate in coupons all the time. The important thing is, of course, that you offer Pre-Loved and are also excellent in your service status, but then you’re allowed to participate. And who doesn’t like entering trend 23, 24, 25 or something and getting 20% off? It works great. And of course, try everything the seller cockpit offers: ads, running your own coupons, or the newsletter function. Go through all that and see how it all complements each other.
Isabell: By seller cockpit, you probably mean Seller Hub Pro?
René: Oh God, yes!
Isabell: You just said to participate in coupons. I don’t think we’ve really talked about that in this podcast yet. Usually we always talk about the voucher codes that every seller can create for themselves. But there are also the codes that eBay basically generates. Could you say a few more words about how that exactly works?
René: Exactly. There are coupons, which on eBay are called "sidewide coupons". That means we offer a coupon code and if you participate as a retailer, you bear 100% of the discount costs. And the nice thing is, in the Pre-Loved area we can say every retailer is allowed to take part. We offer it to them, they can log in and enjoy the entire marketing campaign. That means the coupon is promoted very prominently on eBay.de. There are various other marketing tools that we activate, and that’s very, very nice for reaching even more new customers.
Isabell: That definitely sounds like a very, very efficient method. And Julia, do you use it too?
Julia: Absolutely. First of all, participation is totally easy, and we also always see that it’s super successful. In combination, what we’ve also tried over the past few weeks, combining coupons with ads, was also very exciting and gave us a really great sales push. So we’re very, very happy about that and see that it just works really well.
Isabell: Are there any other tools you use? Or would you say that this is currently your primary recipe for success?
Julia: This is definitely our primary recipe for success. We also tried the newsletter topic, but we still see a bit of potential there for us. That hasn’t worked as well as we had imagined.
Isabell: You now also have a very, very large number of eBay listings. How do you generally deal with changes like that? For example, when new item conditions are launched here? You really have a mass of listings that then have to be processed at the same time.
Julia: It always depends a bit on what changes are happening. With the item conditions, for example, it was fortunately very easy for us, because we’ve already been using them for our own shop for some time. That means the information already exists and we simply stored or used it for our eBay assortment, so to speak. That was really easy. And in principle, we also have teams that support this and always make sure, when new features are launched, that we make the corresponding changes in our system to participate or benefit from them.
René: What’s very nice in the partnership is that there’s a bit of fearlessness, and I recommend that to all other retailers too. Of course, we at eBay always recommend 100%, but 80:20 is totally fine.
Isabell: What do you mean by that?
René: That means if you say you also have the three item conditions, and of course we provide guidelines on how to classify them. If it deviates by a little bit from yours, talk to us and ask: can that still work? Then we can advise you and maybe find an 80:20 solution. And that applies to everything. Even if we say: hey, you need five pictures per item or you should have five pictures. Maybe you can only manage four right now. Great, then you still have a lot of pictures for the item. As long as you don’t just have one, one is deadly in fashion, that’s great. That’s why I’m happy about a good 80:20 mentality across the whole area.
Isabell: The area has developed quite a lot, especially in recent years, and is currently experiencing a real boom, one could say. How do you view this current development?
Julia: Very positively! We’re really happy that we can help shape it and we simply see that second-hand and Pre-Loved fashion are becoming more and more popular. And this image of musty flea market finds—that’s, well, it no longer exists, and second-hand is simply becoming more and more popular. And we also see that through the products and brands we offer, we can contribute a lot to that too.
Isabell: Now, even with musty flea market finds, there are still a few differences. Is it the case that brands still perform better in Pre-Loved? Or does everything work across the board?
Julia: We can clearly see that premium brands perform well. In principle, we’re interested in extending the product lifecycle, and that works much better with premium brands, of course. High-quality brands with a longer lifespan simply sell really well, whereas fast fashion, sometimes with lower quality, is also just not suitable for the second-hand market and, I think, is not what the customer is necessarily looking for from us.
Isabell: Do we see this trend on eBay too, René?
René: Yes, we do see it—I wouldn’t necessarily call it premium, but very well-known brands. And we also see that in our search results. What customers are looking for with us are brands, and they’re moving toward Pre-Loved faster and faster, and that’s extremely nice to see. We’re no longer in this musty...
Isabell: flea market corner?
René: Exactly, we’ve actually arrived at the new normal, and it’s really nice to see. We were also at Fashion Week in Berlin in January, as eBay, together with many brands. With the German Fashion Council, and Pre-Loved, second-hand, and circular economy are the number one topic. It’s really great to see that. What surprised me personally a lot is that we’re now also genderless, we’re ageless. That means no matter the age, no matter the gender, Pre-Loved is worn and responds to trends, seasons, and weather. So yes, the new normal has really arrived, and I’m absolutely happy to see that.
Isabell: How am I supposed to picture Pre-Loved being represented at a Fashion Week? I mean, then it’s actually not a new trend anymore, right? These are already worn garments.
René: There are different concepts. Upcycling is a keyword, for example. There’s a brand we sponsored that reuses fabrics from a major German men’s premium brand. And other concepts, like what Julia said, extending the lifecycle of an item, is of course absolutely crucial in a circular economy—that it moves away from this throwaway mentality and toward: can I maybe sell the item a second time? Give it to my daughter? However you do it, that’s what’s in focus.
Isabell: Julia, do you also refurbish the clothing?
Julia: No, we don’t. We have our purchasing criteria, which are also very clearly visible to our customers in the shopping process. And based on these criteria, we naturally also inspect the goods. So it’s very important to us that the quality we promise to customers is actually what we end up selling. And when the customer gets their parcel at home, or the customer opens the box and the item looks just as nice as we described it, that’s incredibly important for us. If an item doesn’t pass our quality check, we would reject it and not sell it.
Isabell: But in the end, that’s actually a very good feeling for the end customer too, when the goods really do meet expectations.
Julia: Yes.
Isabell: And how do you handle the whole topic of seasonality?
Julia: We also clearly see that there are seasonal patterns in the second-hand or Pre-Loved market too. For example, we already know that in autumn demand for winter jackets rises, and accordingly we can control that through our purchasing process, because only what we buy can of course also be sold in the end. And the topic of trends also plays a huge role. We saw that popular brands like Sézane did really well last year. Certain colors, burgundy was a totally hyped color. In the shoe category, we could clearly observe that cowboy boots were the absolute hit last summer. So in principle, there are trends and seasonality in second-hand just like in the first-hand market.
Isabell: And that brings us to the end of this episode. But before I let you go, I’d like to play one more round of "This or That" with you. It’s a game we always like to play with our guests, where I give you a choice between two things, and you have to pick one or the other. Shop single pieces or complete outfits?
Julia: Single pieces.
René: Outfits.
Isabell: Capsule wardrobe or regularly something new?
Julia: Regularly something new.
Julia: Capsule wardrobe.
Isabell: Did you coordinate that? Very sensitive topic: buy shoes second-hand or better new?
Julia: Second-hand too.
René: The sneakers on eBay with authenticity verification.
Isabell: 80s or 90s fashion.
Julia: Eighties.
René: Nineties.
Isabell: Huge bargain or rather designer pieces?
Julia: Designer pieces.
René: Bargains!
Isabell: Okay, and with that I’ll let you go from this episode as well. Many, many thanks, Julia and René, for being here today and talking with me about Pre-Loved fashion on eBay. And I hope many people feel inspired to take another look at their item descriptions and eBay listings in general. And with that, goodbye and see you next time.
Julia: Thank you, that was fun.
René: Yes, lots of fun. Thanks a lot!
Julia: We can already clearly see that premium brands perform well. In principle, we’re interested in extending the product lifecycle. And of course, that works much better with premium brands. High-quality brands with a longer lifespan simply sell really well, whereas fast fashion, sometimes with lower quality, is just not suitable for the second-hand market and, I think, is also not what the customer is necessarily looking for from us.
Isabell: Welcome to "Alles top. Gerne wieder!", the eBay podcast all about commerce and e-commerce. I’m Isabell Butterwegge, and today we’re taking a closer look at the world of Pre-Loved fashion and the success of momox fashion. And we’re looking at what you can learn from it for your business. And for that, I have two great guests with me in the studio today. First, Julia Koenen. Julia is responsible for the marketplaces area at momox. Hi Julia, great to have you here!
Julia: Hi Isabell, thanks a lot for the invitation. I’m really happy to be here.
Isabell: I’m really happy too. And René is here as well. René Uhlworm is Senior Category Manager and responsible for the Pre-Loved fashion area at eBay. A warm welcome to you too, René.
René: Hello Isabell, hello Julia, thanks a lot for the invitation. I’m really excited. This is my second time here.
Isabell: That’s right, you’ve been here before. Before we dive into the world of Pre-Loved fashion, we’d like to give our guests the chance to share a bit about themselves personally. And to start with, I wanted to ask if you could share a fun fact about yourselves. Julia, would you like to go first?
Julia: I don’t even know if this is a fun fact, but when it comes to second-hand... if I look back about five years, I didn’t have a single second-hand piece in my closet. And after five years, probably 50% of my wardrobe is second-hand, and it’s so much fun, and I’m really happy about it.
Isabell: Mine actually looks very similar, I can agree with you there. René, a fun fact about you.
René: I surprised myself last week. I know eBay is cool, but how cool eBay is, I realized because we keep sponsoring brands, especially in Berlin. And now also around Fashion Weeks and various other fashion moments. And one of the brands is really a brand that Beyoncé wore during her last tour, the Renaissance Tour, so we’re cooler than ever.
Isabell: Ah, very cool. Then let’s dive into the world of momox fashion. Julia, momox fashion is one of the biggest providers of Pre-Loved clothing on eBay. But how did it all start?
Julia: Good question! It all started 20 years ago. The company was founded in Berlin under the name momox. And we initially started by buying books and media. We then sold them through our platform medimops.de and also, among other places, on eBay. And the fashion division started ten years later. Since 2014, we’ve been selling under the name "ubup", and since 2021 it’s been known as momox fashion.
Isabell: Ah, so your eBay account has actually existed for ten years.
Julia: Yes.
Isabell: Wow, then first of all congratulations on the anniversary. And René, you manage momox fashion on eBay. Can you describe a bit what makes the collaboration special for you?
René: I need to ask a question first. Is it possible that you first had an eBay account and then your own store?
Julia: I think we started with both at pretty much the same time.
René: Oh cool! Sorry, back to your question. I love the partnership with momox because it’s a real partnership. eBay doesn’t sell or buy Pre-Loved goods itself, so... it’s not competing on its own platform either, it’s a real partnership. We learn together, and in today’s strongly growing second-hand market, it’s really great to learn together: what do customers need? Whether it’s Gen Z or all generations. Many customers and Pre-Loved customers, and quite rightly so, have high expectations when it comes to customer service and information before purchase. And learning that together is a lot of fun for many people.
Isabell: I can very well imagine that. Julia, you just said that your wardrobe is now more than 50% Pre-Loved fashion. And that’s basically what we’ve seen over the past few years. A lot of Pre-Loved fashion has simply gained a huge amount of importance. You’ve been active for ten years now—how has the eBay account developed over that time, in your view?
Julia: Overall positive, I’d definitely say. In recent years, we’ve spent a lot of time continuously improving the shopping experience for our buyers on eBay. We always want to understand what drives customers. Why do they buy on eBay? And we start with our product listings. The more information we can provide about each individual product, the better. More photos, product details—that’s a very, very important topic for us. But also improving processes, fast shipping. So there are lots and lots of things we’ve done right in recent years.
Isabell: René, can you confirm that development?
René: Definitely. What’s great is that we don’t stand still. And that’s really, really important—that we keep developing together and try everything eBay offers. eBay renews processes. eBay launches new tools to reach customers and provide better customer service. And what’s great in the partnership with momox is that we try everything together. That doesn’t mean everything works. But in principle, it’s about finding the best marketing mix for both customers and momox. And on the other hand, of course, keeping the eBay community in focus. That we keep stepping back and asking: Is this the right thing for our community together, and are we doing the right thing?
Isabell: How do you approach that in relation to the community?
René: Valuing the community, meaning how you address the community, how you address our customers, and always putting your heart into it. For example, I got to know the colleagues from your customer service and they’re super lovely. And that aura. We’re in a digital medium, and you can really feel that, and I can only recommend to everyone to approach it with a lot of love and heart. And that’s exactly what our community expects, and rightfully so.
Isabell: Approaching it with a lot of love and heart. Julia, you just said that you’ve learned a lot over the past few years regarding your product presentation. Do you have any more tips on what you found that really worked well?
Julia: Well, first of all, we clearly try to follow your tips when it comes to the whole product listing topic: the title is super important. But of course, especially in the second-hand area or in fashion generally, we see that many photos are good, and the more details we can provide per item, the better. And to be fair, that benefits not only our eBay shop, but also our own shop.
Isabell: Speaking of your own webshop, what role does it still play for you?
Julia: An absolutely central role. What’s great about our own shop, and also eBay as an additional sales channel, is that we can try out a lot. We often see that many things that work on eBay also work really well in our own shop and vice versa. That means we can always test a lot there and we learn from both platforms.
Isabell: Do you have an example?
Julia: For example, the topic of item conditions. We’ve had that in our momox fashion shop for a long time. We know how important it is for our customers that we offer different item conditions. And that’s now something we also have on eBay, where we immediately knew: of course, we’ll do that, it brings great added value for our customers.
Isabell: Item conditions aren’t really new for us, are they, René?
René: In the first quarter of this year, we launched the new item conditions for used fashion items. You can now cluster your Pre-Loved items into "excellent", "good" and "acceptable". And that’s exactly what we knew from momox would work really well. I think it’s been over a year and a half since Julia first called us: "Are you doing this too?"
Isabell: Very nice, that’s also super practical and very intuitive. Julia, you sell Pre-Loved fashion. That means you actually only ever have one item per eBay listing. So you already have a very, very high, enormous amount of work to constantly relist all these offers and photograph everything again and again. How do you approach the topic of product photos?
Julia: Yes, that’s really exciting. I once had the chance to look at the process ourselves in our warehouse and see how it all works. And it’s completely different depending on the product. Some items are photographed on a mannequin, others on a hanger, then some on a table. And it’s a really great process, which of course is also very, very time-consuming. But in the end, it always results in really beautiful product photos.
Isabell: That sounds very, very well optimized. You’re certainly ahead of your competition in many ways. Are there any other things where you’d say you already have a competitive advantage over others?
Julia: We’re trying to integrate AI into our new processes a lot. As we know from eBay, but also from our own platform, it’s essential that the more product information and descriptive attributes we provide for our customers, the more fun the treasure hunt is. And that’s exactly where we rely heavily on AI. Simply extracting descriptive attributes from the product photo and then using them for sales.
Isabell: And how big is your assortment?
Julia: Very large. Right now we have over 1 million products.
Isabell: 1 million. Wow!
Julia: From 2,000 brands. So there really is something for everyone. The largest share is clothing, but also accessories and shoes. And exactly, everyone really finds a great piece for themselves there.
Isabell: But I assume they’re not all listed at the same time, they come in little by little?
Julia: Exactly, of course. New products are added every day. You can see that in both shops too. It’s always clear which of our new products they are. New brands are added. We naturally have our own team that takes care of the whole topic of brands and products. They always look at: what are the current trends? What’s in demand right now? What do our customers feel like buying?
René: Perhaps it’s very important to note here that, given momox’s size, the good thing about eBay is that they don’t cannibalize. That means they don’t take away visibility from small and medium-sized sellers, which is truly what our heart is all about, but rather that’s the beauty of it. What we see is that we’re stronger together. That means the sum of all our sellers, together with momox, makes more of a difference and is much stronger than the individual retailer. So don’t panic now because momox has 1 million items—that’s great. It means I, as a small or medium-sized retailer, can also go live on eBay with my Pre-Loved shop, my cute second-hand shop somewhere in Charlottenburg. Please do! Because that’s exactly what defines us. And momox is not the threat; rather, together we have a lot of visibility. And I can only encourage everyone to do that.
Isabell: It ultimately makes for a good inventory mix on our platform that we simply have something for everyone across the board. René, you just casually mentioned that you’ve tried out a lot with momox fashion in the marketing mix. What exactly did you do there and what did you find worked well?
René: What worked very well was momox’s trial-and-error mentality. We tried out a lot. On eBay, it’s not like there’s one marketing tool that makes everything work or causes everything to work. Instead, every assortment has its ideal marketing mix, and that’s exactly what we tested. And momox also had the willingness and desire to try it out together with us. In 2023 we also had marketing events that didn’t work. That means we learned and kept going. And that’s exactly the beauty of it: always testing the optimum for retailers and customers. And taking along everything that eBay launches new. We have a new advertising cockpit, we have new item conditions. Every day something new comes up on eBay. And that’s exactly where the collaboration with momox comes in: trying again and again, what can we do? Where are we up to date? And what does the customer actually want to see?
Isabell: And if you had to sum up one tip for our viewers, what would you like to give them?
René: I’d start with the mindset. I’d start with the mindset of giving something back to the whole community. Saying: Hey, our Pre-Loved buyers have a smaller budget for fashion. But that makes them all the more happy about a great branded item in great quality. Take that as the starting point, put yourself in the buyer’s shoes, and look at the processes. When it comes to fast customer communication, friendly customer communication. Especially when it comes to the whole topic of returns. React quickly there too, even when it comes to refunds—our customers have the same expectations as everyone else.
Isabell: Julia, what would you recommend?
Julia: I think I agree with René there. It’s an interplay of many factors. There isn’t one single tip I’d like to give, but I do see that we should keep the entire sales experience or customer experience in view. That starts with fair pricing. It continues with great brands that we have available or offer to customers. And again, the topic of product descriptions. I mentioned it earlier, but it’s simply essential in the second-hand sector. And if we keep all of that in view, we can create a really great shopping experience for our customers.
Isabell: Yes, and before we talk in a moment about which marketing tools momox fashion uses on eBay exactly and how the market is developing, I’m interested in your opinion: Are you already active in this area? What experiences have you had on eBay? Feel free to exchange ideas with like-minded people in the eBay community or on our Facebook page eBay for Business Deutschland". We’re already looking forward to your stories.
Isabell: René, you’ve already said several times that we’re of course continuously working to make new tools and new things available to retailers so they can manage their business on eBay even better. Which tools can be used to help market Pre-Loved products optimally and perhaps also reach new target groups?
René: Sounds super boring, but the listing on eBay is absolutely crucial. A Pre-Loved listing, as you just said, it’s single items, which means one listing per size, per color, per product group. And that’s exactly where it’s worth taking another look and listing better, because at the end of the day you want the customer to find the item. Sounds boring, but it’s the easiest way to success. Then there’s something I think we all do: coupons. eBay offers Pre-Loved sellers the chance to participate in coupons all the time. The important thing is, of course, that you offer Pre-Loved and are also excellent in your service status, but then you’re allowed to participate. And who doesn’t like entering trend 23, 24, 25 or something and getting 20% off? It works great. And of course, try everything the seller cockpit offers: ads, running your own coupons, or the newsletter function. Go through all that and see how it all complements each other.
Isabell: By seller cockpit, you probably mean Seller Hub Pro?
René: Oh God, yes!
Isabell: You just said to participate in coupons. I don’t think we’ve really talked about that in this podcast yet. Usually we always talk about the voucher codes that every seller can create for themselves. But there are also the codes that eBay basically generates. Could you say a few more words about how that exactly works?
René: Exactly. There are coupons, which on eBay are called "sidewide coupons". That means we offer a coupon code and if you participate as a retailer, you bear 100% of the discount costs. And the nice thing is, in the Pre-Loved area we can say every retailer is allowed to take part. We offer it to them, they can log in and enjoy the entire marketing campaign. That means the coupon is promoted very prominently on eBay.de. There are various other marketing tools that we activate, and that’s very, very nice for reaching even more new customers.
Isabell: That definitely sounds like a very, very efficient method. And Julia, do you use it too?
Julia: Absolutely. First of all, participation is totally easy, and we also always see that it’s super successful. In combination, what we’ve also tried over the past few weeks, combining coupons with ads, was also very exciting and gave us a really great sales push. So we’re very, very happy about that and see that it just works really well.
Isabell: Are there any other tools you use? Or would you say that this is currently your primary recipe for success?
Julia: This is definitely our primary recipe for success. We also tried the newsletter topic, but we still see a bit of potential there for us. That hasn’t worked as well as we had imagined.
Isabell: You now also have a very, very large number of eBay listings. How do you generally deal with changes like that? For example, when new item conditions are launched here? You really have a mass of listings that then have to be processed at the same time.
Julia: It always depends a bit on what changes are happening. With the item conditions, for example, it was fortunately very easy for us, because we’ve already been using them for our own shop for some time. That means the information already exists and we simply stored or used it for our eBay assortment, so to speak. That was really easy. And in principle, we also have teams that support this and always make sure, when new features are launched, that we make the corresponding changes in our system to participate or benefit from them.
René: What’s very nice in the partnership is that there’s a bit of fearlessness, and I recommend that to all other retailers too. Of course, we at eBay always recommend 100%, but 80:20 is totally fine.
Isabell: What do you mean by that?
René: That means if you say you also have the three item conditions, and of course we provide guidelines on how to classify them. If it deviates by a little bit from yours, talk to us and ask: can that still work? Then we can advise you and maybe find an 80:20 solution. And that applies to everything. Even if we say: hey, you need five pictures per item or you should have five pictures. Maybe you can only manage four right now. Great, then you still have a lot of pictures for the item. As long as you don’t just have one, one is deadly in fashion, that’s great. That’s why I’m happy about a good 80:20 mentality across the whole area.
Isabell: The area has developed quite a lot, especially in recent years, and is currently experiencing a real boom, one could say. How do you view this current development?
Julia: Very positively! We’re really happy that we can help shape it and we simply see that second-hand and Pre-Loved fashion are becoming more and more popular. And this image of musty flea market finds—that’s, well, it no longer exists, and second-hand is simply becoming more and more popular. And we also see that through the products and brands we offer, we can contribute a lot to that too.
Isabell: Now, even with musty flea market finds, there are still a few differences. Is it the case that brands still perform better in Pre-Loved? Or does everything work across the board?
Julia: We can clearly see that premium brands perform well. In principle, we’re interested in extending the product lifecycle, and that works much better with premium brands, of course. High-quality brands with a longer lifespan simply sell really well, whereas fast fashion, sometimes with lower quality, is also just not suitable for the second-hand market and, I think, is not what the customer is necessarily looking for from us.
Isabell: Do we see this trend on eBay too, René?
René: Yes, we do see it—I wouldn’t necessarily call it premium, but very well-known brands. And we also see that in our search results. What customers are looking for with us are brands, and they’re moving toward Pre-Loved faster and faster, and that’s extremely nice to see. We’re no longer in this musty...
Isabell: flea market corner?
René: Exactly, we’ve actually arrived at the new normal, and it’s really nice to see. We were also at Fashion Week in Berlin in January, as eBay, together with many brands. With the German Fashion Council, and Pre-Loved, second-hand, and circular economy are the number one topic. It’s really great to see that. What surprised me personally a lot is that we’re now also genderless, we’re ageless. That means no matter the age, no matter the gender, Pre-Loved is worn and responds to trends, seasons, and weather. So yes, the new normal has really arrived, and I’m absolutely happy to see that.
Isabell: How am I supposed to picture Pre-Loved being represented at a Fashion Week? I mean, then it’s actually not a new trend anymore, right? These are already worn garments.
René: There are different concepts. Upcycling is a keyword, for example. There’s a brand we sponsored that reuses fabrics from a major German men’s premium brand. And other concepts, like what Julia said, extending the lifecycle of an item, is of course absolutely crucial in a circular economy—that it moves away from this throwaway mentality and toward: can I maybe sell the item a second time? Give it to my daughter? However you do it, that’s what’s in focus.
Isabell: Julia, do you also refurbish the clothing?
Julia: No, we don’t. We have our purchasing criteria, which are also very clearly visible to our customers in the shopping process. And based on these criteria, we naturally also inspect the goods. So it’s very important to us that the quality we promise to customers is actually what we end up selling. And when the customer gets their parcel at home, or the customer opens the box and the item looks just as nice as we described it, that’s incredibly important for us. If an item doesn’t pass our quality check, we would reject it and not sell it.
Isabell: But in the end, that’s actually a very good feeling for the end customer too, when the goods really do meet expectations.
Julia: Yes.
Isabell: And how do you handle the whole topic of seasonality?
Julia: We also clearly see that there are seasonal patterns in the second-hand or Pre-Loved market too. For example, we already know that in autumn demand for winter jackets rises, and accordingly we can control that through our purchasing process, because only what we buy can of course also be sold in the end. And the topic of trends also plays a huge role. We saw that popular brands like Sézane did really well last year. Certain colors, burgundy was a totally hyped color. In the shoe category, we could clearly observe that cowboy boots were the absolute hit last summer. So in principle, there are trends and seasonality in second-hand just like in the first-hand market.
Isabell: And that brings us to the end of this episode. But before I let you go, I’d like to play one more round of "This or That" with you. It’s a game we always like to play with our guests, where I give you a choice between two things, and you have to pick one or the other. Shop single pieces or complete outfits?
Julia: Single pieces.
René: Outfits.
Isabell: Capsule wardrobe or regularly something new?
Julia: Regularly something new.
Julia: Capsule wardrobe.
Isabell: Did you coordinate that? Very sensitive topic: buy shoes second-hand or better new?
Julia: Second-hand too.
René: The sneakers on eBay with authenticity verification.
Isabell: 80s or 90s fashion.
Julia: Eighties.
René: Nineties.
Isabell: Huge bargain or rather designer pieces?
Julia: Designer pieces.
René: Bargains!
Isabell: Okay, and with that I’ll let you go from this episode as well. Many, many thanks, Julia and René, for being here today and talking with me about Pre-Loved fashion on eBay. And I hope many people feel inspired to take another look at their item descriptions and eBay listings in general. And with that, goodbye and see you next time.
Julia: Thank you, that was fun.
René: Yes, lots of fun. Thanks a lot!
By
0 comments
