INTERVIEW #15 RENOON

“However, there is currently an immense gap between consumers and brands. Renoon was born to fill that in.”

Why did you start Renoon?

Photo: Iris Skrami

My passion for sustainability can be traced back to my Uni times, after reading case studies of companies that have merged impact and business I remember coming back home to my dad telling him I'd want to become the Chief Sustainability Officer of a fashion multinational (when this position wasn't really a thing yet). However, I have a always been a solution-oriented and pragmatic person, so I decided for a career in FashionTech, experimenting the use of technology. I still continued to include sustainability in my lifestyle, especially with food and mindfulness, in my free time I even got yoga-teacher certified and opened a YouTube channel that to my utmost surprise today has more than 10M views. Two years ago though something hit me: I had made all these changes in most of the things I was consuming, but what about fashion? When I decided to make the move I spent a month and a half to research online before buying! Working at global fashion brands in Amsterdam, I rarely shopped outside of them, but one day I wanted to buy a black dress for a cocktail party. That's when the endless search started and I realized that although we might want to be more responsible as consumer, we don't have the right tools to make this something accessible to everyone. I also had the view of a fashion-industry-insider. I believe that sustainable transformation needs to come from all sides: policy makers, brands, consumers. However, there is currently an immense gap between consumers and brands. Renoon was born to fill that in.

“Currently our algorithm processes 1M products on a regular basis and only 1.5% of them are accepted on Renoon, really only those items that represent the best standards out there.”

How do I know the products are truly sustainable? Tell us more about your framework please?
The big question that I asked myself at the beginning of the journey was: what is sustainability? In the process of building up Renoon's concept, once I had the idea, one of my co-founders and I spent months in research. We made good use of our Italian roots to go visit factories and CEOs in different parts of the industry. It was at this moment that we had a definite confirmation that the industry is still struggling to give a definition of what sustainability means, but so is the entire world! I mean, do we really have the perfect science to say what is sustainable? I don't think it is even linked only to a single product, company, person, industry, country, but a whole macroeconomic topic. On the other side, also for a single consumer sustainability is defined in personal ways, for someone might be veganism, for others obsessing about co2 emissions or who made their clothes. These are all possible and definitely valid ways to have an impact. That's how we build our framework: we have an algorithm that assesses brands and then also each product for objective criteria that come from recognized industry standards; we then give attributes to products and transparently say which area of sustainability the brands focus on in order to then make a match with what users value the most. For brands, we have different criteria based on their size (for small brands it is difficult to have access to certifications) and in case a brand is only starting out in sustainability we are showing users only responsible collections that tick the boxes or give them second-hand/rental options to access the brand in responsible ways.
Currently our algorithm processes 1M products on a regular basis and only 1.5% of them are accepted on Renoon, really only those items that represent the best standards out there.
This is the data-driven approach we want to give to the industry and personalized approach for consumers on the other side.
Sustainability is very complex, so we hope to make it super user-friendly and accessible for consumers.

Can I use Renoon globally or which brands and companies are presented?

Currently we focus in Europe, with a slight inclination to the Netherlands, although all brands come also from Italy, France, Spain, Germany and UK.

How do you work to reduce impact of transportation with the brands available at your platform?

One of out values is for example "Made in Europe" which gives you the possibility to shop from brands that have a close-to-home production, thus reducing the impact of transportation not only from the e-commerce purchase you make but also of the whole transport involved in the making of that item. We are then soon releasing a new feature that will give users the info on where the item is shipped from. Something very convenient of Renoon is that we don't work only with brands directly but also online multi-brand stores. So if you see an American brands for example, we show you where you can buy it from a store that already has that product in a warehouse in Europe, or even in your country in the future.

“We are then soon releasing a new feature that will give users the info on where the item is shipped from.”

How many products are currently available at your plattform?

Between 8k-10k and are really the creme-de-la-creme: the best of the offering out there in the internet associated with the values you care about the most. Something important I want to highlight is that more than products, Renoon has made an assessment of 350+ brands.

Are there any products more popular then others?

Underwear is really popular! Now that things are also opening up and summer is coming we have seen more than 10% increase in dresses, for which we provide also pre-owned and rentals. Rentals are especially something we want to educate people about because it is scientifically proven that for special occasion is more sustainable to rent a dress rather than owning it, that is unless of course you plan to wear something many times.

Can you tell us more about your users, who are they and from which countries?

We are really building a global community that represents a new generation moved by values and responsibility for a better future. As we have a focus in the Netherlands, we see the majority of our users form there, but also top countries are Italy, UK, Germany, Austria and some Nordics. Our user is then a modern working woman between 25-35 who is aware of the strong issues of fashion and takes responsibility for the choices she makes, without having to compromise on style.

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