CALGARY - As Canadians increasingly turn to second-hand goods to stretch their dollars, some of the country’s biggest brands are looking to capture a piece of the growing resale market themselves. Vancouver-based Lululemon is among the companies expanding into resale in Canada - joining brands including Canada Goose and Ikea - that are giving customers ways to sell back used products so they can be resold to someone else. “Their products are already being sold in the resale market. Why not just enter that market, control the image, the presentation of that product and acquire new customers along the way?” said Sid Mookerjee, an assistant professor of marketing at McGill University. Mookerjee said brands see an opportunity to reach consumers who may want their products but aren’t willing or able to pay full price. The shift comes as traditional thrift and consignment stores are also seeing growing interest from shoppers. Lea Wilhelm, owner of Calgary’s The Peacock Boutique Consignment, said the consignment business has been around for 50 years and sells a range of high-end brands, including Lululemon. “I think people are becoming a little more conscious of their spending,” she said. “People still want good quality. So businesses like ours can provide good quality for a fraction of the cost.” She said she welcomes major retailers extending the life of their products and isn’t worried about the added competition. Peacock can pay consignors cash rather than limiting compensation to store credit, she said. The store also carries products from numerous brands. “We’ve differentiated enough that we’re not solely dependent on one brand or style or whatnot to resell to our customers.” Resale popularity booms The growth of resale is also creating another business opportunity: the infrastructure needed to get millions of used products ready to be sold again. Lululemon expanded its Like New resale program into Canada earlier this year through a partnership with Denver-based Tersus Solutions, a company that handles the behind-the-scenes work of putting used products back on the market. Under the program, customers can trade in clean, gently used Lululemon items that meet the company’s eligibility requirements in exchange for an electronic gift card that can be used online or in stores. Lululemon did not respond to requests for an interview. Every item sold through the Canadian program passes through Tersus’s new 25,000-square-foot Calgary facility, its first outside the United States. There, items are cleaned and assessed, photographed and listed online, before being packed and shipped to their next owner. “We’ve had many, many days where we’re shipping more than a thousand pieces out of product that’s come in, being put through the system of recommerce and consumers are buying them back for, as Lulu would say, for their second win,” said Steve Bommer, general manager for Tersus Canada. Tersus uses pressurized carbon dioxide rather than water to clean garments. “What happens is the CO2 gas turns into a liquid under that kind of pressure,” Bommer said. Unlike water, Bommer said the liquid CO2 doesn’t leave garments wet in the conventional sense, eliminating the need for a traditional drying process. Bommer said the process saves about 300 gallons, or more than 1,100 litres, of water per cleaning cycle compared with a conventional wet wash. Tersus is also preparing to process thousands of shoes for another brand in Canada, while working with several major apparel companies in the United States. “In Canada we have On shoes. They’re a Swiss company. They just partnered up with us. They’re about to send about 20,000 pairs of shoes to go through the same sort of recommerce process that Lululemon is engaging,” Bommer said. “In the United States, they work with Arc’teryx, Tersus works with The North Face (and) Canada Goose.” Canada Goose launched its authenticated Generations resale platform in the United States in January 2023 before expanding it to Canada that July and Japan in 2025. Customers can trade eligible products for a gift card, with pieces authenticated, assessed and prepared for resale. The company says more than 17,000 products were recirculated through Generations in its first year. In its 2026 fiscal year, more than 19,000 products were recirculated through resale and repair. “Canada Goose products are built to last, and Generations was created to help extend that journey,” Carrie Baker, president of brand and commercial at Canada Goose, said in a statement. “We know there’s growing interest in trusted resale, and Generations gives customers an authenticated way to trade in, shop and rediscover Canada Goose pieces that still have years of life ahead of them.” The trend extends beyond clothing Ikea Canada has long resold returned and display products through its As-Is departments and in 2019 introduced a program allowing customers to sell eligible used Ikea furniture back to the retailer. The company says it sold 1.6 million products through its Canadian As-Is departments last year and says its resale program continues to grow. Peter Jones, head of sustainability at Ikea Canada, said customers can check online to see which products are eligible and receive a quote before bringing the furniture to a store in exchange for an Ikea gift card. “There’s a lot of use cases for this,” Jones said. “A student goes to university. They’re there for three years. They buy a desk and chairs. Maybe at the end of the three years, they don’t want a desk anymore. So then they bring the desk back to us and sell it back to us.” Jones said he isn’t surprised other major retailers are moving into resale. “I would suggest that every retailer should be doing this,” he said. “We really would advocate for a circular economy. It’s the only way to have a sustainable business in the long-term.” Mookerjee said sustainability is another reason brands are increasingly interested in resale, as companies face pressure to demonstrate how they are reducing waste and keeping products in circulation longer. But he said the appeal of buying used is also changing. Second-hand shopping can signal that someone is financially savvy or has found something unique, he said, while consumers have become increasingly comfortable with the idea that they don’t have to permanently own everything they use. “They’re used to kind of acquiring possessions and understanding them as more temporary possessions rather than permanent possessions,” Mookerjee said. For traditional consignment retailers such as The Peacock Boutique Consignment, the arrival of major brands in a business they’ve occupied for decades is another sign that attitudes toward used goods have changed. For Wilhelm, there’s also a larger reason to keep clothing circulating. “I am aware of how damaging the fashion industry is to our planet,” she said. “Just trying to do anything to mitigate that, for the betterment of our planet, is why it’s important to me.”
