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Retail is changing, but not because it wants to. From fashion to food, most C-suites are still running on 20th-century systems, designed for a world where raw materials were cheap, landfills were bottomless, and customers didnt ask hard questions. That world is gone. The most forward-thinking retailers and e-commerce companies are adapting. Theyre deploying next-generation climate solutions to address core business challenges. In the process, theyre transforming how products are valued. Two companiesTrove and Wastelessoffer a window into this new logic: climate tech that strengthens margins, deepens loyalty, and delivers a better retail experience for both fashion and food. Resale is the brand Resale and secondhand fashion arent new. But for years, they lived outside the fashion brands controlon platforms like eBay, ThredUp, and Depop. Consumers benefited. Brands lost visibility, margins, and ownership of the customer relationship. Trove changes that. It enables brands to run recommerce in-house, maintaining control over quality, pricing, and the end-to-end experience. Brands like Patagonia (Worn Wear), Canada Goose (Generations), and Michael Kors (Pre-Loved) already use Troves infrastructurea tech platform that handles intake, grading, pricing, and fulfillment alongside the new inventory these brands sell through their own websites. Trove integrates directly into backend operations, so resale doesnt feel like an add-on. It becomes part of the brand. And resale has already gone mainstream. In 2024, U.S. secondhand apparel sales approached $50 billion. Nearly 60% of consumers now shop secondhand, and many prefer to buy secondhand directly from brands they trust. The consumer would prefer to buy a resale item from the brand thats essentially certifying it and condition grading it, CEO Terry Boyle told me on the Supercool podcast. Theyll pay more for that. Brands are paying attention. Brand-owned resale delivers: Higher margins than traditional discounting and off-price channels Lower acquisition costs50% to 80% of resale buyers are new to the brand Higher lifetime value as resale becomes a reentry point into the brand ecosystem Were not the hard part of being environmentally friendly, Boyle told me during the podcast. Were the easy part. Because we actually make money. This model is especially effective for premium and luxury brands, where quality control is paramount. It protects brand equity while offering sub-luxury pricing, without channel conflict. Boyle added, Thats why I call resale off-price with a better brand halo. Sell it before it expires Grocery has a different challenge: perishables. If food waste were a country, it would rank third in global emissionsbehind only China and the U.S.responsible for 8 to 10 percent of the total. For supermarkets, thats not just an environmental issue; its margin and profits expiring in plain sight. Wasteless engineered a solution. Its platform applies AI-driven dynamic discounting to supermarket shelves, adjusting prices in real time based on expiration dates. Two identical tubs of yogurt with different sell-by dates? Troves solution reduces the price of the tub thats expiring sooner, encouraging the consumer to buy it. Everything is synced to inventory systems and displayed on digital shelf labels. As Wasteless CEO, Oded Omer, told me on the Supercool podcast, Our goal is not to discount. Our goal is to discount the right amount at the right time in order for the goods on the shelves to be sold. The results from three international grocery stores: DIA (Spain): 32.7% reduction in food waste Hoogvliet (Netherlands): 50% drop in markdown costs Carrefour (Argentina): Expanded to all 640 stores after successful pilots in France Omer doesnt talk ESG targets. He talks pricing. If food waste is just the sustainability departments job, it wont get solved, he added during the episode. This is pricing strategy. It protects margin. And thats the point; climate tech in retail works best when it solves for margin, not mission. Design for better outcomes The most powerful retail innovations dont ask consumers to change behaviors or make sacrifices. They redesign systems so that better outcomes emerge by default. Trove doesnt ask customers to rethink used clothing. It makes resale feel as seamless and trustworthy as buying new. Wasteless doesnt preach about food waste. It uses real-time pricing signals to move inventory and optimize supply chains. Neither company markets itself as a sustainability brand. Theyre retail tech providers focused on profitand performance. Both solve problems retailers already have. Both harness technology to make it easier to serve customers. And both reduce emissions in the process. Thats the new climate advantage: not just doing less harm but running a better business. Josh Dorfman is CEO of Supercool.
Category:
E-Commerce
In todays business landscape, the most successful brands arent just selling products, theyre building movements. They dont just fill shelves; they shape values. At Michael Graves Design, that shift didnt happen all at once. It emerged gradually, as our commitment to purposeful, human-centered product design attracted something deeper than customers. It built a community and created competition. And its no accident. Today, our strategic North Star focuses on activities of daily living (ADLs), the essential tasks that allow people to live with independence and dignity, from bathing and eating to grooming and cooking. By designing around these universal needs, but in ways that feel like consumer products and not adaptive equipment, weve created products that are intuitive, accessible, and emotionally resonant. This lens doesnt limit creativity, it sharpens it. And it has become our most powerful tool for building relevance, resilience, and community. Mission is more than a marketing tool Mission-driven has become a buzzword. Every brand wants to have a purpose. But for mission to matter strategically, it has to do more than decorate your packaging or animate your social feed. Our mission is to create everyday products that improve peoples lives. But that mission only became truly actionable when we tied it to something concrete: ADLs. This framework has become our internal compass, pushing us to prioritize utility, dignity, and accessibility in everything we make. It informs the briefs we make, the retail partners we pursue, and the price points we target. In some cases, it means passing on opportunities that dont align with our principles. That discipline doesnt restrict growth, it channels it. How a brand becomes a community When your team is aligned around a mission, and your products consistently express that mission, something remarkable happens: People start to organize around your values. They engage not just as consumers, but as participants. They tell their friends. They give feedback. They push you forward. In our case, this has meant a growing network of collaborators and advocates: occupational therapists who help us understand better ergonomics, consumers with mobility challenges who engage with us and our prototypes, and retail buyers actively seeking more inclusive products. Thats not just a customer base. Thats a strategic community. We call it Design With. The deeper our engagement with that community, the more insight we gain. What features actually matter? What are we overlooking? What trade-offs are worth making? These are questions focus groups cant answer on their ownbut a values-aligned community will. And now, with decades of experience, our team has a foundation on which every new product gets designed. The compounding value of purpose A few years ago, we launched a line of universally-designed home healthcare products. At the time, we knew they were good. What we didnt expect was the ripple effect. People started sharing our products not because they were beautiful (they are), but because they made life easier for parents, caregivers, and people recovering from injury. Our inbox filled with stories. We began hearing from health systems, aging-in-place experts, and advocacy groups. They didnt just want to buy the product, they were asking us to design new products. In other words, our design work sparked a flywheel of collaboration. And that, more than any campaign or launch strategy, became the engine of our brands long-term relevance. 4 lessons for consumer brand leaders Whether youre designing kitchen tools, personal care products, or tech accessories, the lessons are the same: Anchor in something real. Your mission isnt a slogan, its the answer to why this, and why now? For us, that answer is ADLs. Design for dignity. If your product doesnt work for someone with different abilities, perspectives, or needs, youre leaving value on the table. Engage beyond the buyer. The best ideas often come from users who are outside your traditional demographic. Invite them in. Let community shape the roadmap. When customers believe in your mission, they want to help build whats next. Treat that like a strategic asset. ADLs as a strategic lens Focusing on activities of daily living gives our team a practical framework to innovate where it matters most. It grounds us in empathy, keeps us close to real users, and unlocks whitespace where other brands might see routine. Its easy to get distracted by trends. But when you design around real, everyday human needs, you stay relevant, and build trust that lasts. Ben Wintner is CEO at Michael Graves Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
We can all agree that the internet is an never-ending repository of information. But new research out of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has found that, in some cases, Googling can get in the way of a good brainstorm session and actually hinder creativity. In a recent study published in the journal Memory & Cognition, researchers asked participants to brainstorm new ways to use one of two common objectsa shield or an umbrellaeither with or without internet access. In some trials, study participants could access Google search; in other trials, they couldn’t use a search engine. Of the groups, those with access to Google, for the most part, came up with the same common answers, often in the same exact order. “[That’s because] they relied on Google, while non-Google users came up with more distinct answers, explained lead study author Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor at CMUs Department of Social and Decision Sciences. That is to say, researchers found that while individual creativity may be enhanced by internet access, groups articulate fewer novel solutions when provided internet access, suggesting that internet access may constrain collective creative fluency. Said another way: “Thinking outside the box means thinking outside the search engine.” This could be an example of fixation effects, in which being shown a possible solution influences participants to think of similar answers, but also obstructs them from thinking of new or different answers. For example, Oppenheimer said, when given a prompt such as “things you might spread,” participants with access to Google might suggest “butter” or “jam,” while others who lack internet search access might suggest something along the lines of “disease” or “rumors. Oppenheimer said we should accept that internet access is changing the way people think and solve problems, but instead of banning search engines, we should learn how to use them better. The internet isnt making us dumb, but we may be using it in ways that arent helpful, he added. Oppenheimer and study coauthor Mark Patterson, an assistant teaching professor at CMUs Department of Social and Decision Sciences, think different prompt engineering strategies might lead to different, even better, results. Our hope is that by studying how human thought interacts with technology use, we can figure out ways to glean the best of the internet while minimizing the negative consequences, Patterson said. Their advice: Do some offline brainstorming before turning to the internet.
Category:
E-Commerce
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