Used & Loved

Idea

Introduction

Davey and I saw first-hand, how fragmented the second-hand market was. We could see how many hurdles there were stopping people from buying used, and that meant millions of people were giving up and buying new. We realised we had to do something about it.

So, Davey (who has a degree in Engineering from Manchester University) left his job working as a Developer in Feb’21, and I left my job as EU HR Manager for a global professional services company, in Sept’21, to work full-time on Used and Loved.

Amazon and Pinterest for second-hand shopping.

By making the second-hand shopping experience simple and inspiring, Used and Loved aims to become the first thought when choosing to buy second-hand items.

No more time-consuming web trawling. No more thousand-tab browsers. No more getting stuck for ideas of what to buy second-hand. No more waste.

By giving shoppers all the second-hand sites that they love at their fingertips, and by giving them suggestions of what to buy for all areas of their life with; user-generated content; stylist suggestions; and, niche expert guidance, there will be no more blocks. People will want to see what’s hot in the world of second-hand and want to keep coming back for inspiration every time they go to spend money, without hurting their pocket or the planet.

We are changing the way we shop for second-hand, forever, at the perfect time!

Not only is second-hand becoming more popular, proven with the likes of eBay sponsoring Love Island. But it is also becoming essential for many due to the cost of living crisis, and the climate emergency.

With the power to filter popular sites like eBay, Oxfam, Vinted (+many more to come), customers that want their purchasing habits to reflect their world-view now have an easy way to make this happen; just one search on Used and Loved brings up price, distance and collection comparisons for the item you want, across the sites you love.

From conscious bargain hunters to treasure seekers, this is the aggregator built for pre-owned, pro-future consumers.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Our growth (see highlight section above) has been nearly entirely organic, word-of-mouth, results. And that’s not all, while we are still in MVP stage…

- 160% MoM growth

- 20% Click Through Rate

- £25 Average Order Value

- S/EIS approved, providing investor tax relief.

- Trademarked registered and tech developed in-house.

*The 36M figure in the image above has been calculated based on data from a company survey of 45 respondents.

Recently featured in the Welsh national and local press, Cardiff TV and a podcast as ‘The Cardiff couple revolutionising second-hand shopping amid the cost of living crisis'.

Listings of items from 20 second-and websites like eBay, Oxfam, Vinted, Thriftify, Music Magpie, The Cirkel, Monkey Threads Preloved, Little Fashion House, Envirofone, and 15 more to come (including Gumtree and Shpock) which we plan to add in the near future.

We’ve also been lucky to have some great advice from Richard Theo (Co-Founder of Wealthify), and Matthew Smith and the team at CEMET (Centre for Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technology). We hope to continue these relationships moving forward.

We’ve also been lucky to have some great advice from Richard Theo (Co-Founder of Wealthify), and Matthew Smith and the team at CEMET (Centre for Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technology). We hope to continue these relationships moving forward.

**Based on unaudited management accounts.

Monetisation strategy

The business model is made up of two main parts; a commission of 1-10% from affiliates earned from purchases made through our site (e.g. eBay is av. 3.5%, Oxfam 10%), and a premium membership which if just 5% of our users pay for it, means our ARR by year 5 will be £350M.

Part of what we will offer in the membership area has the potential for more paid services additions as well.

Use of proceeds

Marketing - 35%
Content marketing is going to be the main focus for us, as we look to achieve strong search rankings with SEO, and boosting our current organic growth.

Providing value for our users with user guides, product reviews, second-hand shopping tips and buying suggestions for each product category.

Referral, ambassador and influencer budgets & paid ads.

Development - 35%
Improving site usability: building a shopping-focussed homepage (with suggested buys and curated lists).

Tools to list items from Gumtree, Shpock and plenty of smaller sites, like Thriftify, Beyond Retro, The Cirkel, and Build a Bundle.

Categorisation: improving segmentation of products into categories like ‘women’s fashion’, including detailed filters such as size and style.

We plan on creating a dashboard to show Co2 saved from purchases made through the site for each user.

Operational costs - 30%
Web hosting, overheads, accounting, subscriptions etc.