The challenge

Odd Muse had more than 10,000 damaged or unsellable dresses in storage, creating £750 in monthly warehousing costs with no clear route to recover value. Traditional liquidation was expected to return only 5–10% of RRP and risked heavy discounting and brand dilution. The business needed a way to monetise the inventory while protecting pricing, presentation and customer experience.

The solution

A managed resale programme was introduced to take responsibility for the full recovery process. Damaged returns were restored, photographed and prepared for resale using AI-supported listings, with pricing, resale operations and fulfilment managed externally. Products were sold through Vestiaire Collective, Odd Muse’s approved resale channel, helping the brand retain control over how products appeared in market while removing workload from the internal team.

Practical value

The programme recovered more than 50% of RRP on restored inventory, with Odd Muse receiving approximately 25% of RRP without adding internal operational workload. It also removed £750 per month in warehousing costs as 10,000+ units of inventory were moved back into circulation within approximately 12 weeks.

Damaged stock can become a margin-generating asset when resale is managed as a commercial channel rather than simply a sustainability initiative.