Wellington high school student Lily Roberts has a vision for a new platform that will make it easier for young New Zealanders to buy and sell secondhand clothing.
Part of the motivation for creating ClothesVine is environmental, Lily says.
"I think young people are a lot more in touch with the sustainable side of business in general. They have a lot on their minds in terms of embracing ethical values… but they don't necessarily have the grounding in terms of social connections to get their ideas out into the community," she tells Jesse Mulligan.
Lily Roberts, creator of the secondhand clothing platform ClothesVine Photo: ClothesVine
"I think young people are a lot more in touch with the sustainable side of business in general. They have a lot on their minds in terms of embracing ethical values… but they don't necessarily have the grounding in terms of social connections to get their ideas out into the community," she tells Jesse Mulligan.
Lily got the idea for ClothesVine from a similar model overseas which makes it easy for teenagers to make money from selling clothing.
"I thought that New Zealand could really benefit from a similar digital export… because we embrace so many sustainable values."
To come up with a business model, she did a lot of research and had help with showcasing her idea from the Young Enterprise scheme.
ClothesVine - which is targeted at young people - will have a very specific categorisation system that replicates an in-store shopping experience.
Lily says it will fill a gap in the market as people are deterred from selling clothes on sites like TradeMe because the categorisation system isn't specific enough and listing costs are too high for items that only sell for a few dollars.
Most secondhand clothing shops don't have an online presence, she says, and it's inconvenient for sellers to drop off clothes at a specific location and likewise for buyers to visit a specific location when they don't know what's there.
ClothesVine will charge sellers no upfront costs for listing an item and make a profit from costs involved with promoting or "bumping" specific listings, Lily says.
She's been validated by talking to other teenagers about the service.
"Young people have the best knowledge of the new generation's demands because its their community and they do know what's needed," Lily says.
Follow ClothesVine on Instagram for further updates.
