The ROI of Recommerce in 2025
How modern brands are turning inventory and customer behavior into growth
Recommerce is no longer a sustainability experiment. It’s infrastructure. A system designed to recover margin, activate customers, and protect brand value across the entire product lifecycle.
Brands doing it well aren’t just offering resale. They’re building fully branded recommerce ecosystems, combining peer-to-peer and trade-in for a loyalty loop, with inventory recovery into a growth channel that lives inside the business.
Here’s how that investment pays off.
1. Margin Recovery That Doesn’t Cannibalize
Every brand has inventory that can’t go back to DTC. Returns, B-grade product, overstock, or off-season units often sit in a warehouse or get liquidated at cents on the dollar. Recommerce puts that inventory to work.
Instead of offloading through outlet channels or discount cycles, brands now route that inventory into a dedicated resale environment where framing and context drive stronger recovery.
Treet brands routinely recover 60 to 80 percent of MSRP on inventory that would otherwise generate a fraction of that through typical liquidation channels (TJ Max, B2B marketplaces, etc).
Why it works:
- Resale buyers know they’re buying secondhand. They don’t expect it to be perfect.
- Segmented merchandising keeps your DTC channel clean and full-price.
- The experience lives within your brand, preserving trust and positioning.
Outcomes:
- Higher margin on returns and excess stock
- No cannibalization of new product
- Efficient monetization of otherwise idle inventory that you are paying storage fees on
2. Peer-to-Peer That Actually Pays Off
Many brands underestimate peer-to-peer resale. It feels too lightweight or hands-off. But P2P, when integrated into your brand experience, is one of the highest-leverage elements of a recommerce channel.
Your customers list their used products. Other customers buy them. You provide the platform, keep the transaction inside your ecosystem, and capture the upside.
How P2P drives ROI:
- Zero COGS and zero fulfillment cost
- No listing fees, commission on every purchase
- Re-engagement from sellers who return to list and then shop again
- New customer acquisition from resale buyers entering at lower price points
- Driving repeat purchases P2P sellers paid in brand credit often spend 2 to 3 times their original earnings
P2P sellers and shoppers are more likely to return later to resell again, creating a long-tail behavior loop.
Results we’ve seen:
- Lapsed customers reactivated after 6 to 12 months
- 50 percent of resale buyers are net-new to the brand
- Significant LTV growth with no additional CAC
3. Retention Through Behavior Loops
Recommerce creates durable engagement loops that traditional loyalty programs struggle to replicate.
Instead of chasing points or discounts, customers are rewarded with real value. They resell something they own. They receive credit. They buy again. That loop repeats.
It turns your product into a currency that keeps customers participating in your ecosystem—even between full-price purchases.
What makes it powerful:
- Credit-based incentives tie past purchases to future ones
- Customers feel ownership in a system, not just a transaction
- Resale buyers become resale sellers, and vice versa
Typical results:
- 2 to 3x increase in repeat purchase rate among resale participants
- Higher LTV per unit sold
- Improved retention metrics with lower reliance on paid channels
This isn’t just retention. It’s participation. You’re giving customers a way to stay engaged without having to buy something new every time.
4. Returns You Don’t Have to Lose On
Returns are one of the most expensive parts of ecommerce. They drain margin, add operational complexity, and often result in lost product value.
Recommerce turns returns into recoverable revenue. Units that don’t meet DTC standards can be funneled directly into resale. No need for reprocessing, repackaging, or restocking.
Some Treet brands now offer customers the option to resell the item themselves instead of returning it. That move:
- Avoids reverse logistics costs
- Keeps the item in circulation
- Recovers customer value without refunding from your balance sheet
ROI drivers:
- Lower return processing costs
- Higher recovery on distressed or imperfect units
- Reduced warehouse congestion and labor burden
It’s a smarter, faster recovery path. And it aligns operationally without needing to reinvent fulfillment workflows.
5. Brand Equity, Controlled
Your brand will be resold—whether you control it or not. If customers are turning to third-party platforms, you lose control of pricing, presentation, and the customer experience.
Running your own recommerce channel means your brand gets to own:
- How secondhand inventory is priced
- How listings look and feel
- How policies are enforced
- How customers re-enter your ecosystem after resale
It’s more than optics. It’s about protecting trust. Customers pay attention to what happens after the first purchase. When your brand stands behind the product throughout its life, that loyalty compounds.
Brand benefits of owning recommerce:
- Controlled resale pricing and narrative
- Lifecycle storytelling that aligns with product quality
- A consistent experience for both new and returning customers
Recommerce Is the next big channel
Smart brands are no longer asking if recommerce is worth exploring. They’re asking how to build it into their infrastructure.
The ROI is showing up in all the right places:
- Margin recovered from returns and excess inventory
- CAC-free revenue from peer-to-peer resale
- Repeat purchase through resale credit loops
- Operational lift from rerouted returns
- Stronger brand control and customer retention
Use our ROI Tracker to project what recommerce could do inside your business.
