What's New: The $1K/mo AI that explains code
(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)
The resale industry is currently worth $36 billion:
- The resale industry will hit $53 billion by 2023, and $77 billion by 2025. New tools are emerging to serve resellers. Will yours be the next one?
- Boxed and canned wine sales are on the rise, as consumers increasingly prioritize more sustainably packaged beverages over bottles. These new opportunities will give founders a reason to pop the cork!
Want to share something with nearly 85,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing
🚀 The Resale Industry is Skyrocketing
from the Indie Economy newsletter by Bobby Burch
A recent ThredUp analysis projects that the resale industry will hit $53B by 2023, and $77B by 2025. The report estimates that its current worth is $36B. The resale industry encompasses businesses that buy and sell clothing, antiques, household goods, equipment, and other used or vintage items.
Resale relay
The secondhand surge is driven by a variety of factors, one being increased interest in sustainable options. Shoppers also turn to resale to hunt down rare and unique items. Although ongoing supply chain issues have forced major retailers (like Target) to eat shipping costs, and others (like Kohl’s) to raise prices, resellers have not faced the same woes. Most resellers are able to source their products locally or domestically, and aren't reliant upon a long supply chain.
On the matter of prices, major resale marketplace ThredUp reduced prices by about 15% in Q3, per CNBC. ThredUp CEO James Reinhart broke it down further:
While many retailers have been forced to raise prices due to inflation or supply chain pressure, we do not have the same level of exposure.
We have chosen to strategically lower prices in order to engage as many customers as possible during a time when consumers are feeling price pressure in many other parts of their life.
Giant resellers like ThredUp, The RealReal, Etsy, and OfferUp benefit from scale and name recognition. However, there are hundreds of thousands of small resellers who, combined, make up a significant part of the market share. For them, acquiring preowned inventory can be more difficult than it is for major marketplaces. Here's where indie hackers come in.
Inventory intel
Many thrift stores, pawnshops, and other marketplaces use outdated and manual systems to acquire preowned inventory. This is what indie hackers Jacquelyn de la Parte and Mailys Rabot hope to change with Trendful.
The cofounders launched Trendful as an all-in-one SaaS for resale merchants to acquire preowned inventory from their customers. Trendful aims to be the Shopify of the resale market; the duo is drawing upon their own experience in running a resale firm to meet the needs of their customers. In fact, Trendful was created as a system for their designer resale products, Jacquelyn said:
The problem we are solving is the outdated supply chain model. E-commerce SaaS brought innovative ways to connect with demand. Trendful is bringing innovative software to connect with supply.
Trendful allows users to manage resale offers from customers, inventory, shipping, pricing, customer relationships, and payouts. The company’s resale app integrates with merchant websites to guide their customers through selling nearly any item in a few steps.
Jacquelyn and Mailys launched Trendful in June, and are already gaining traction. Trendful is netting about $1.5K MRR, according to its Indie Hackers Product Page, and its database shows pricing trends on more than 30K unique items. Trendful was also recently accepted into the TinySeed accelerator program.
Trendful's basic subscription starts at $80 per month. Enterprise companies pay $2K per month.
Another trend that the company hopes to leverage is the growing movement of big retailers launching buy-back and resale programs. Companies like Lululemon, REI, H&M, and many others have already gotten in on the game, and more will likely follow.
Trendful is also tapping into sustainability demands and the shift away from the traditional linear economic model. In the linear economy, manufacturers make, retailers sell, consumers buy, and (eventually) discard their products. This produces a ton of waste. In 2014, for example, 85% of used clothing in the US was not recycled.
Trendful’s software enables what is known as as the “circular economy.” The model is a system that rethinks a variety of industries by encouraging sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. Furniture giant Ikea, for example, is a proponent of the circular economy, and its buy-back program repurposes used furniture into other items.
In fashion, this means that an item of clothing is kept in circulation for as long as its value is retained, then is recycled once its value is gone. Levi's Blue Jeans Go Green program has already recycled and repurposed more than 3.9M pieces of denim. It also means that companies like outdoor gear brands Patagonia and Arc’teryx are using more durable materials to ensure that items will retain longevity, thus being able to be used by many people.
For more on the circular economy, check out this thoughtful piece.
Do you work or shop in the resale space? Share your experience below!
Discuss this story, or subscribe to Indie Economy for more.
📰 In the News
from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani
🤖 An advanced AI says that AI can never be ethical.
📱 Researchers say that Instagram directly connects teens to drug dealers.
🎶 A company is selling songs made from COVID-19's genetic sequence as NFTs.
⌚️ Samsung has filed a patent for a rollable watch with a camera.
🚴♀️ Peloton stock has dropped after the "Sex and the City" spinoff premiere.
Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.
🍷 The Alcohol Packaging Trend
from the Hustle Newsletter by The Trends Team
The Signal: Suppliers of boxed and canned wine had reason to pop the cork in 2020. Sales surged as consumers swapped bar stools for couches, and shopped in bulk.
US boxed wine sales during the week of March 7, 2020 rose 53% compared to the same week in 2019. The top seven brands saw combined growth of 13.5%, hitting 53.4M cases in 2020. One of them, Bota Box, gained ~1M customers.
As for canned wine, volume sales this March were up 3,800%+ from 2017.
These trends look set to continue, paving the way for a host of new opportunities.
The connoisseur niche: Boxed wine used to be synonymous with cheap and tacky. Now, there are plenty of decent wines available in this format. Some even get the nod from a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Stigmas are fading; 42% of wine drinkers said that they would consider buying canned wine in 2020, compared to 33% in 2017.
Boxed wine stays fresh for six weeks after opening, whereas a bottle lasts just days. This makes boxes ideal for discerning drinkers, and restaurants that serve by the glass.
The quality of boxed brands has improved, but there is still a gap in the market for premium products, especially in larger formats for restaurants and bars. Fine and premium wines are set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% through 2022, compared to 6% for non-premium wines.
*Source: Mekko Graphics
As for cans, you could leverage the trend toward premiumization with single-serving cans of premium wines for both high-end events and the growing number of single adults who may not want to open a full bottle at home.
Luxury boxes could double as gift bags. Opportunities include ready-to-gift corporate, wedding, and Father's Day wines.
Do it for all the right Rieslings: Alternatively, packaged wine carries eco-credentials. Boxed wines produce half the emissions of bottles, and cans are recycled at a higher rate than glass.
Research says that shoppers are more likely to buy wines labeled "environmentally friendly" or "sustainably produced," and demand for organic wine is rising.
*Source: Beverage Daily
Many businesses target "conscious" wine lovers:
- Plonk Wine Club offers an organic, small-batch wine subscription.
- Mysa Natural Wine partners with a food bank.
- McBride Sisters supports women in the wine industry.
- Vegan Wines are (surprise!) vegan.
One idea is a subscription for socially and environmentally friendly wines in box format.
Boxed wine would pair well with plant-based meal delivery services (like Purple Carrot), organic vegetable subscriptions (like Abel & Cole), and restaurants with a sustainable-eating focus.
Conscious shoppers may be interested in groceries like oils, vinaigrettes, soups, and sauces in box format, or even boxed liquid hand and dishwashing soap with built-in dispensers.
You could look beyond boxes to sustainable solutions, like this wine bottle refill service or these refillable 10 liter wine kegs.
Burning Man, beach days, and BBQs: Cans and cartons allow for innovative, youth-targeted branding.
- Bandit Wines' cartons feature national parks.
- Beach Juice promotes a surfer lifestyle.
- Babe wines are a spinoff of the Twitter account White Girl Problems.
*Source: Instagram - @beachjuice.co, @banditwines, @katie_ragan
Single-serving boxes could suit campers and hikers because they are light and easily flattened once empty.
Resealable cartons would be ideal for in-flight service. They can be easily stowed for turbulence (or whenever the chatty guy in the window seat needs to get out). They could also protect women from drink spiking in clubs.
Cans would suit sports venues, where fans often carry multiple drinks to their seats. Babe, for example, is the official wine sponsor of the NFL.
Canned wine vending machines at motels, theaters, and festivals would save on bar infrastructure, although the legal framework for these is still evolving and varies by state.
Sparkling wines match the fun-in-the-sun image of canned wines, and are expected to remain popular. A focus on bubbly would be wise.
The health niche: The low- and no-alcohol drinks market is predicted to grow 31% by 2024, as 52% of Americans seek to reduce their consumption. And 78% of drinkers aged 18-35 say that they are looking for low-calorie alternatives.
*Source: Instagram
Wine spritzers tick both boxes. A medium glass of wine contains 13% alcohol and 159 calories, whereas products like Smirnoff's Vodka & Soda Rose (4.5%), Ramona "Ruby Grapefruit" (7%), and Hoxie Spritzer (5%) contain <100 calories.
Canned spritzers leverage the trend toward ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages, the fastest-growing product category in the alcohol market.
That's the spirit: The low-cal trend is driving drinkers away from wines and beers, and towards other beverages.
*Source: USA Today
Fermented alcoholic beverages like hard seltzer and hard kombucha had their moments in 2019 and 2020, and brands like Tanqueray have developed their own RTD cocktails.
Founders could explore RTD cocktails in large boxes for parties or restaurants. Boxed spirits with built-in dispensers and measurements would help bartenders measure shots and do stocktake.
You could als get into the festive spirit with cocktails like eggnog to be heated and enjoyed at home.
How are your favorite wines packaged? Share below!
Subscribe to the Hustle Newsletter for more.
🛠 Crafting Your Sales Page
Explain how your product solves your customer’s problem. Take them on a journey, with your product being the destination.
Discuss this story.
🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick
I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:
🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?
Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.
Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.
Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Nathalie Zwimpfer for the illustrations, and to Bobby Burch, Priyanka Vazirani, Steph Smith, Ivan Romanovich, and Darko for contributing posts. —Channing
