Changing the pre-loved game

Before fast fashion existed, second hand items resell were dominated by electronic and automotive. Luxury goods were more popular among second hand or vintage shops as they don’t lose too much value from initial sale price and some vintage high-end goods have higher value.

Post fast fashion, the discarded clothes of fast fashion forced the industry to rethink about the pile of unwanted clothes. Charity shops definitely play a big role in reselling discarded clothes. Then enters tech companies. It started with auction sites like eBay, moving on to curated luxury vintage e-commerce, then to mobile apps.

The first movement in online reselling and trading marketplace in Indonesia could be traced back to 2003. The industry remained wide open. Pre-owned marketplace only started to enter Indonesia in late 2014. Other fashion tech companies specialising in pre-owned was heavily invested in luxury goods until Tinkerlust came into the scene in 2016.

Image: Samira Shihab (right), Aliya Amitra Tjakraamidjaja (left)

Tinkerlust founders Aliya Tjakraamidjaja and Samira Shihab didn’t intend to build a fashion tech company in the beginning. “I resigned in 2015 because I want to create something. Then I met up with Samira so we started with what we know best: a consulting firm. At that time we already had a pipeline of clients. I was in corporate banking for 10 years while Samira has been working on a start-up in the US.” The idea quickly fell down when they found out that consulting wasn’t their passion. “We want to have our own products and build our own brand. It was Samira who came up with the idea of selling bags, but there are already so many people selling and reselling luxury bags online. I want to sell everything from clothes to shoes to bags. I love cleaning up my wardrobe once a year. Back then people sell their stuff at bazaar, but there’s uncertainty in joining bazaar. Sometimes you miss, sometimes you hit. Oftentimes, customers bargained price.”

The pair then put together a business plan for fashion pre-loved e-commerce site. They didn’t stop the consulting firm. “We hired an analyst to keep track on projects. We were going to use revenue from the firm to build Tinkerlust.” Shihab’s husband who works with e-commerce also helped build the site. “The site started with mostly our products. We begged our friends to sell with us. Everything was done manually, from picking up products to photographing products and sending press release.”

Social media helped Tinkerlust land their first customer. “Our first batch of customers came from other cities. They don’t have access to global fashion brands like Jakarta residents.” The problem gave them idea to focus on accessibility. “Pre-loved is already a niche market. If we focus on luxury only, we will slash another half of that niche market,” said Tinkerlust COO Aliya Tjakraamidjaja. “Most women don’t wear branded products from head to toe. We combine fast fashion and luxury. We want to provide a wide range of selection for women.” Luxury goods only account for 30% of products sold by sellers, while the remainder is a combination of high street and contemporary brands. “For people who don’t live in big city, branded has a different meaning. High-street brands can be branded for them.”

Tinkerlust also sets its own rules by filtering brands and products they carry. “Brand value is what we are looking for,” said Tjakraamidjaja. “We carry brands that customers would like to buy based on data we gathered.” Condition and authenticity of products are taken into consideration. The strategy helps maintain the prestige of the site. It also offers a three-day guarantee if the customer don’t like the product – a policy that can boost Tinkerlust’s reliability.

Like other tech companies, Tinkerlust faced early start-up problem, cash flow. Almost a year into operation, the company ran out of funds the founders previously accumulated from their consulting firm. It forced them to lay off half of the employees. “It didn’t stop there. We were actually going to close Tinkerlust down when we received a last minute call from investor. We then re-hired some of the employees.”

It’s not just cash flow the founders have to worry about. Perception, above others, is probably the most challenging factor. “I remember one customer who offered a huge discount on BCBG Max Azria top I owned. When I agreed to her price in exchange of Instagram post, she immediately rejected that idea, ‘Oh I don’t want people to know I buy second hand clothes. I don’t want people to think I have skin disease or something!’“ The company also went through rejection from sellers when they first launched. “We hosted a dinner for potential sellers. It took them the whole dinner to finally tell us that they don’t want to sell with us.” 

In 2018, the company posts a steady revenue growth of 15%-20% every month. The site records 100,000 visitors and 1,000,000 unique visitors monthly, a big jump from the roller coaster they went through in 2017. This was in part thanks to events the company throw every two months. “The first event we held was a talkshow in partnership with a brand and only 8 people showed up,” Tjakraamidjaja recalled. “But it was good because we met up with customers for the first time.” The company frequently holds pop-up events where customers can see and try on the clothes along with featured sellers. “We try to have different kinds of events, from talkshow to seller gathering, buyer gathering, influencer gathering, and influencer meet-up with fans, as long as we can meet our customers. Those events are insightful because we get to hear honest feedback.” Building a community and maintaining good relationship between sellers and buyers are crucial for start-ups like Tinkerlust. After all, online pre-loved transaction is based on trust and availability. “Because pre-loved item only comes in one piece and one size, we need to maintain a healthy supply of products to give more options to customers.”

Aside from accessibility, sustainability is the motto Tinkerlust has been adopting and pushing to the market. Although there are charity shops like Salvation Army and Oxfam, they only account for 10% to 20% of discarded clothes. The rest of the clothes are shipped to third world countries to be either recycled or resold. However, there is a decline in discarded clothes shipment in recent years as countries like Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda announced that they will stop importing used clothes from the UK and US, opting to grow their own industries instead. The company has an installation and talkshow about sustainability at Jakarta Fashion Week 2018.

Image: Tinkerlust’s installation at Jakarta Fashion Week 2018

Another idea from Tinkerlust that involves sustainability is renting out pre-loved clothes, although it has been put to delay for now. “We did launch rental, but our investors want us to focus on pre-loved because there are many unanswered formula surrounding pre-loved e-commerce. Rental is a different business model. Hopefully we could launch that again in the next two years.” Tjakraamidjaja believes that rental is a good match for Indonesian women’s lifestyle and culture as they are expected to be dynamic. Many gatherings, parties, and meetings have dress code. For someone whose wardrobe is filled with monochrome outfits, going to a floral-themed party could mean a new set of outfit. Renting an outfit that will only be worn once is saving money.

Perhaps the most obvious option for Tinkerlust at the moment is to venture out to the men and kids category, but Tjakraamidjaja said it might take a while. “We want to solve the issue from women for now. Unlike women, men have a bigger ego when it comes to pre-loved products. For women, as long as they are being serviced and the products look good, they will buy.”

The company is also exploring alternatives to offline spaces like hubs in other Indonesian cities in order to speed up the filtering and selling process. It’s a plan that’s barely done by other fashion companies since Jakarta holds the largest market share. Expansion to other countries is not a priority as the company believes that they should expand to countries which citizens have a similar behaviour to that of Indonesians.

TFR believes that Tinkerlust could sell last season garment at discounted price in order to address the challenge of limited piece and size on pre-loved items. On the tech side, personalised site according to size and taste will make browsing easier – which is what Tinkerlust is going to build. The company is constantly upgrading its technology to provide satisfying shopping experience. “You can have the most well-designed website ever, but if website visitors find something wrong or if the site is difficult to navigate, you are going to lose them.”

With customer-to-customer marketplace and luxury resale sites entering the industry, shopping experience might as well be the distinguisher and solution to face the competition, or as Tjakraamidjaja put it, “Oversaturation is always there. Brands with similar style can co-exist, but it is the way they offer things that differentiate them. E-commerce needs to tell a story. It’s not just about selling clothes. People want to know who they are buying from.”