Challenge
Babies grow fast, therefore baby gear is used for a very short amount of time. Parents are left with barely used products and a dent in their bank accounts. Founded in 2019 by a hard-working mum, The Octopus Club was born: an easy to use online platform dedicated to parents, to buy and sell baby, kids' and maternity items. The Octopus Club quickly found its product market fit offering a much needed service and a strong community and sense of belonging, so needed in the early stages of parenthood.
Resale is not just a trend, it's a behavioural shift that is expected to account for 10% of global fashion sales, $350bn in 2028. However, recent economic changes and the end of the pandemic forced marketplaces in the second-hand space to adopt aggressive growth strategies, like cancellation of seller fees, which caused a difficult competitive situation.
Approach
Specialized second-hand and access supply marketplaces have shown incredible growth in Europe in the past years, showing price and volume is not the only thing you can compete on. Learning from wider industry success stories a new business model and differentiated strategy was developed together with the founder to build on the strength of the platform and its community: focus on quality, curation and community.
Outcome
After the strategy the company started building a more robust and curated B2B2C partner network and launched its first physical pop-up in the Young V&A, the UK’s museum of the year and in in process of relaunching their site to show the new direction and unlock the potential for the core user base and growth coming from successful pop up collaboration.
Contact
Amsterdam
tamas@blackpineventures.com
+31 6 38 56 50 25
Vijzelstraat 68-78, 1017 HL Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Stockholm
joakim@blackpineventures.com
+46 70 549 56 97
Östermalmsgatan 26A, 114 26 Stockholm
Sweden
Paris
judit@blackpineventures.com
+33 7 86 60 91 83
7 Rue Meyerbeer, 75009 Paris
France