United Wardrobe is an organization where you can sell and buy clothing online. It is a platform with digital wardrobes where second-hand clothing, accessories and shoes are offered cheaply. United Wardrobe is one of the largest providers of second-hand clothing (2020). You can use this fashion platform, for example, to search for specific brand clothing or to give your own clothing a second life. Many young people in particular use United Wardrobe, often from a sustainable point of view.
United Wardrobe
The online fashion platform United Wardrobe for second-hand clothing was founded on the mission to make second-hand clothing the standard worldwide. The clothing industry is very polluting and many garments can last longer than they are worn. Second-hand clothing on United Wardrobe is often of good quality and many (almost) new pieces are also offered. You can buy sustainable clothing in several ways: new sustainable clothing, second-hand clothing or both. To achieve this, United Wardrobe is a very useful platform. It is also a platform where you can find a lot of diverse clothing: in 2019, the platform already had more than 3.5 million users with an average of more than 100,000 transactions per month. 75% of sellers are between 16-24 years old. This also makes this platform very suitable for young people, for example students with a tight budget. Recently (2019), United Wardrobe also has baby and children’s clothing for sale, which makes it a company that grows with users and responds to demand.
United Wardrobe was founded in 2014 by 3 Business and Consumer Sciences students at Wageningen University. The platform quickly caught on and has now expanded in Belgium, Germany and France in 2020. According to the founders, United Wardrobe distinguishes itself from other platforms where clothing is sold (such as Marktplaats and Ebay) in its personality: the seller is less anonymous to the buyer, United Wardrobe is an online fashion community. In addition, United Wardrobe also guarantees safety: the company itself is the intermediary and holds the money until the buyer has received the product and is satisfied with it (up to 14 days after the purchase). When purchasing, the buyer can indicate whether he or she wants to keep the product or return it. Only when the buyer indicates that the product is as expected will the money be transferred to the seller. Quick personal contact is also possible by sending the buyer or seller a message himself.
How does it work?
United Wardrobe offers the option to create an account so that you have your own online wardrobe to which you can add your own clothing items. It is also possible to save, bid and purchase favorites. A bundle bid can be placed on multiple garments from one seller. With a bundle bid you can get a high discount on the total price.
The home page of your account shows recent additions that match your interests, as well as the products of the people you choose to follow. A notification can also be set up for this, so that you are notified as soon as someone you follow adds a new product to their wardrobe.
Sellers can give the opportunity to bid themselves, but the starting price must start with the minimum price of the product . Because United Wardrobe is such a large platform, it can be useful to use the filters on the site. You can search by brand or by size/color/style and so on. It is also possible to search by the condition of the clothing: new, mint condition or used.
Conditions and costs
The buyer pays the shipping costs himself, so the price of the product does not include shipping costs. United Wardrobe charges buyers 1.99 euros in mediation costs (2020). These additional costs are often not deducted on special days such as public holidays.