Recommerce: The Missing Loop in the Consumer Economy
We have gotten very good at making things. Companies manufacture appliances, clothing, electronics, furniture, tools, kitchen gadgets and millions of other products. We buy them, use them, and eventually replace them. But there is a question we don't ask nearly often enough: What happens to the useful thing we already own when we decide we want something new? Too often, the answer is that it goes into a closet. Then a basement. Then a storage unit. Then a donation pile. And eventually, sometimes, the landfill. There is another possibility. Someone else can use it. That simple idea is the foundation of recommerce. What Is Recommerce? Recommerce is the buying and selling of previously owned goods. Instead of a product moving in only one direction, from manufacturer to consumer and eventually toward disposal, recommerce creates another loop: Make → buy → use → resell → use again → resell again → continue circulating The product stays useful longer. And the money can circulate between ...