Timeless Fashion

EILEEN FISHER

EILEEN FISHER

— Eileen Fisher

The organic way EILEEN FISHER brings timeless style & versatility to new audiences

This case study models how Trove helped EILEEN FISHER
to fully develop a thriving recommerce business and:

• check Move a significant volume of inventory - increasing every year!
• check Attract the next generation of customers
• check Make a positive difference in the world

47,802 POUNDS

of garments given new life

Organic beginnings & new audiences

As Trove’s first partner, the EILEEN FISHER brand has always been a
leader in sustainable fashion. A certified B-Corp, EILEEN FISHER has a
commitment to designing clothing that creates minimal environmental
and social harm. Known for its elegant minimalism and fine, organic
fibers, the apparel company is committed to bringing sustainability into
“every nook and cranny” of its operations.

“Exciting to keep trying to figure out how to keep the most garments.”

“The RENEW business grew organically. As employees, we’re given a free
clothing allowance,” said Cynthia Power, who runs the RENEW takeback,
resale and reuse program. “One of our store managers asked, ‘What if we
take back employee’s clothing they don’t wear anymore, clean it, resell it,
and donate the proceeds to our Community Foundation?’”

“...that positively impact women and girls locally and around the globe. The
resale program grew quickly, beyond the scope and human resources of
outlets. Eventually, EILEEN FISHER opened two stores focused on resale,

— Cynthia Power,

Director of EILEEN FISHER RENEW

For over a decade, EILEEN
FISHER has been collecting
gently used garments. They
give them an environmentally
friendly cleaning and resell
those in perfect condition.

The in-store trade in program was immediately successful.
Customers return a pre-owned EILEEN FISHER garment
to a US or RENEW store, and if a physical location is
inaccessible, the customer ships their item directly to an
EILEEN FISHER recycling center. As a result, customers
were each issued a 5-dollar gift card for each item and
some of EILEEN FISHER’s existing customers purchased
new pieces with their trade in reward. More widely, the
company tapped into a different customer who knew the
sophistication of the brand and really appreciated the
environmental benefits of buying high-quality used items,
but couldn’t afford them.

“The mindset of consumers is changing,” Cynthia said.
“We’ve found that 50% of RENEW customers are new
to the EILEEN FISHER brand.”

Managing resale can be daunting without a strong foundation

“We had thought about having a little online shopping
but nothing to the scale of what Andy was talking about,”
Cynthia remembered, saying she felt a little skeptical. “I
only want a used Subaru from a Subaru dealer. We know
our garments and what they’re supposed to look like.
Can’t we refurbish them better than anyone else? But,
I remember leaving that meeting and thinking that we
should pursue this with Trove.”

Since EILEEN FISHER launched its resale program
RENEW in 2009, the company has taken back
1.5 million garments.

“We had become inundated with tens of thousands of
clothing pieces that needed to be sorted and cleaned,”
Cynthia said. “It was just really overwhelming.”

Trove offered Cynthia an end-to-end, white label solution
with absolute confidence.
Cynthia believed Trove was the
company’s first viable option
to fully launch an online resale
platform.

“I brought it to my leadership and it went forward,” she
said. “Our website is beautiful! The creative is from us and
the backend is a very well-oiled machine at Trove.”

Sustainable wardrobe, sustainable business

A couple of years before
the online RENEW store
launched with Trove, the
EILEEN FISHER team
realized that at least
half of its customer base
didn’t know they could
sell back their clothing.
The brand ran a cheeky,
attention-getting
campaign. A large poster
in all EILEEN FISHER stores proclaimed: “We’d like our
clothes back now, thanks very much.”

Since the program started the RENEW customer’s
lifetime value has increased by 107%. RENEW’s online
circular shopping store also met and exceeded its first-year goals, and in its second year of partnering with
Trove, sales were 2.5X the first year’s performance.

Eileen Fisher has taken back more than 1.5 million
garments, all in varying conditions of use because there
are no barriers to what the brand will accept.

“I was totally surprised and delighted by it!” Cynthia remembered.
“I realized this thing can grow really fast. This is bigger than just
another store.”

After three successful years, the pandemic hit. At a time when
many retail locations suffered, the RENEW website outperformed

• remaining in the black and exceeding projections.

“This is where the world needs to go,” she said. “I’m hopeful that
it’s going to be more normalized and expected. It’s important for
the industry to make resale appealing to customers.”

40.6%
of RENEW customers
buy RENEW again

of EILEEN FISHER RENEW customers are
50% new to the EILEEN FISHER brand

Learn more at trove.co

Trove builds technology that allows brands to take control of their resale
marketplaces, deepening customer loyalty and generating new profits. The
company provides white-label technology and end-to-end operations that power
circular shopping for premium and luxury brands such as EILEEN FISHER. Trove
enables brands to take back items from customers’ closets while maintaining
control of their brand equity and owning their customer experience, data and
relationships. Rooted in a commitment to sustainability, Trove aims to create a
world where all consumers have access to better products with less waste.

About Trove