Q&A: Creating a resale platform for the baby market with Rebelstork

Emily Hosie, founder and CEO at Rebelstork, created a resale platform for gently used baby gear and products. To entice consumers to purchase secondhand baby items, Rebelstork created the Resale Estimated Value (REV) tool, which enables consumers to compare prices. We spoke with Hose about the technology and her vision for the resale market.

Insider Intelligence: What opportunity did you see within the resale market for baby gear and products?

Emily Hosie: It's one of the last-standing legacy retail verticals and there's a lot going on. There's people becoming new parents, myself included. We're millennials and Gen Zs who are digital-first and in tune with what's going on in the environment.

Then you've got established brands that are a little less in touch with sustainability. Baby gear has often been a more disposable item that you use for such a short period, but it has a lasting impact on the environment.

You've also got retailers who still rely heavily on brick and mortar. They're trying to shift toward a digital consumer, but for many, the idea of going into stores and feeling a product before purchasing is becoming dated.

II: What digital tools have allowed your platform to succeed?

EH: We've created tools so parents don’t have to guess the value with our AI-powered pricing technology. For example, if a parent thinks a thousand-dollar stroller is out of their price range, they can log into our REV tool and see the real-time resale value of the item. If the demand for the stroller in the secondhand market is $600, I will spend $400. Then the consumer can see that if their budget was $400 they may be better off buying the thousand-dollar stroller to resell it versus buying a stroller of lesser quality that's $400, which will hold no value and potentially end up in landfill.

Whether you're purchasing a brand-new product or building a baby registry with a retailer, I'd love for parents to be mindful of how their product may fare on the resale market. Our tech tools empower parents to make different decisions based off of the valuations REV gives them.

II: What is the future of the resale market?

EH: Millennial and Gen Z parents are 2.5 times more likely to purchase resale. It's the fastest growing channel across retail. Currently, there are three channels that are expected to grow in the next decade: Amazon, discount, and resale.

If you are a full-priced brand or retailer you are not going to be around unless you have a foot in the resale game because that is where the consumers are moving. It's just getting started in the baby space, but across the board there is a massive shift to there.