Social Innovation Generation

To access our pitch and also to check the documentation from our fieldwork, kindly proceed to this link. Pop-up bazaars are held sporadically so we did not get a lot of chances to talk to bazaar shoppers and sellers from May 1 to 14, 2024. Despite such we were able to connect with our stakeholders multiple times across multiple Metro Manila cities i.e., Taguig City, San Jose del Monte City, Quezon City, etc. as early as the beginning of February 2024. As a general rule, we’ve noticed that most bazaars and Instagram drops happen from July to December.

A. Social business idea

A1. Social mantra one-liner

Find your style and wear your heart on your sleeve.

A2. Contributions to UN goals

The online fashion market is currently dominated by fast fashion globally with a valuation of $136.19 billion for 2024. Fast fashion prioritizes speed and volume over quality and longevity, and most e-commerce platforms are saturated with a constant stream of new but poor-quality products that quickly become obsolete, thus contributing textile waste to local landfills. In the Philippines, garment imports have surged while more and more Filipinos are throwing away items of clothing after wearing it just once.

Patch aims to lay the groundwork for a fashion re-commerce pipeline through its services that lets users discover with ease, champion circularity, and shop with mindfulness. 

We are focusing on addressing Sustainable Development Goals 12 and 9. We see that the infrastructure to participate in circular fashion as an individual has been proven to be difficult. Gen-Z and millennial shoppers experience a mismatch of values and actions in participating in sustainable fashion. Fast fashion has led to rampant consumerism with its low prices and affordability, but this is at the expense of unethical and unsustainable production.

It’s not just us who are already thrifting our everyday wear, we are already seeing the market ready to accept re-commerce as a viable option in shopping for clothes. People want these alternative options, and Patch is here to deliver to a growing market. Patch aims to offer accessibility to all stakeholders while ensuring affordability and reliability of products.

By 2030, we hope to see Patch as one of the leading destinations for circular fashion worldwide, with a thriving community of its stakeholders. We aim to have a significant impact on reducing waste, carbon emissions, and environmental degradation associated with the fashion industry, contributing to a more sustainable and ethical future for fashion.

B. ESG preparedness 

B1. Target issues

We identified that Filipinos are having a hard time engaging in sustainable fashion practices, in this case, thrifting, because of barriers in accessibility and security.

Discovery Chats with our target demographic

As part of our fieldwork, our team conducted discovery chats from April 24 to May 8, 204. We talked to a total of 10 people within 30 to 2-hour calls or physical chats, asking about their shopping experience both online and onsite. We were not able to take a video of most of it since the first few chats happened before we found out we had to take a video, and a lot of the chats happened casually while shopping in onsite bazaars and preloved centers.

The discovery chats reveal a profile of a conservative, price-sensitive buyer who values quality and uniqueness in their purchases. These buyers are practical and busy but have developed a keen interest in fashion, exploring a variety of styles from Cottagecore to Japanese streetwear. They frequent “Ukay-ukay” shops (secondhand fashion centers), Instagram, and bazaars for shopping, with a budget-conscious approach, aiming to spend less than PHP 1,000 (USD 20) for good quality items, typically ranging from PHP 200-600, (USD 4-10) but willing to go up to PHP 3,000 (USD 50) for exceptionally good finds.

Ukay-ukay or thrifting centers are favored for their affordability, although the process of searching for specific items can be tiring. Online shopping is appreciated for its convenience and algorithm-driven suggestions, leading to purchases of more expensive but unique and affordable pieces. However, there are concerns about judging quality and sizing accurately. While buyers consider preloved clothes on FB Marketplace, they have reservations about its legitimacy as a buying platform. Onsite bazaars are valued for their offering of hard-to-find items and the opportunity to discover new shops, despite being expensive.

For buyers, fitting and quality assessment are important, preferring to try clothes in person. They value haggling for a good deal, even for small discounts. Styling and curation play a role in their purchasing decisions, as they prefer outfits or collections that help them imagine the clothing’s potential. Trustworthiness in sellers is crucial, with consistency, registration, and branding being important factors. Overall, the buyer enjoys the tactile experience and human connection of exploring clothes in physical stores, highlighting a blend of practicality, value-driven mindset, and a growing passion for fashion.

Field work to South Trading Post, a flea market, in the Philippines

STP had a collection of sellers that sold vintage items, pre-loved clothing, original and local clothing brands, accessories and knick knacks. Upon roaming around the area, my friend made a comment how “flea markets like these can be heaven for petite girls” implying that the selection of clothes present were already limited for her being plus-sized. It was becoming clear that the variety of clothes present were limited for her and even for me since most of the clothes being sold are for men. Men’s vintage clothes are of an abundance in this flea market, while those for women are limited in terms of sizing. 

She commented how these are the clothes he would shop and wear, secondhand or vintage streetwear. When asked if she would come to these events alone, she would never. She prefers to go to these types of events with someone she knows. Being her first time in a flea market like South Trading Post, she comments how she would like to go to similar events in the future. Her exposure to secondhand clothing has been ukay-ukays, or thrifting centers, for the mass market. 

The location is also considered to be in an affluent area where access to highly valued clothing pieces is an acceptable norm. However, for my friend, she was shocked to find that a lot of the pieces are priced way above PHP 900 (approx. USD 20) for a top. She commented how the curated items are cute but not within her price range. She would rather shop brand new for similar pieces for the same price range.

Despite our previous notions that Gen-z women are the target market for sustainable, secondhand, or vintage clothing, I’m starting to believe that men with vintage collections and fanatic attitudes towards brands are more susceptible to pay more to build their streetwear looks and styles. Women are more concerned with price and sizing. Overall, people value community and variety when going into these spaces.  

B2. Root causes

Given how fast fashion prioritizes speed and volume over quality and longevity, most ecommerce platforms are saturated with a constant stream of new poor-quality products that quickly become obsolete thus contributing textile waste to local landfills. Therefore while consumers seek to make more quality-conscious purchasing decisions, the limited accessibility of purchasing and browsing through affordable and high-quality clothing options undermines their efforts to adopt more sustainable and value-conscious purchasing decisions. 

Most importantly, according to a survey by Rakuten insight in December 2023 Filipino respondents cited two main pain points which lead to a barrier in adopting sustainable practices. Firstly, 42% reported a lack of sufficient information to make sustainable choices. Secondly, 41% of respondents stated that adopting sustainability practices were too costly. Given the following data indicates that there is a perceived gap in knowledge or access to information regarding sustainable products and practices. Moreover, the data also implies that consumers may perceive sustainable alternatives to come at a higher cost compared to conventional options; this perception could significantly deter price-conscious individuals from adopting sustainable practices.

Summary of audio and video interviews with customers and sellers of Solana Flea Market in the Philippines

To view the interviews, kindly go to this drive.

The Solana Flea Market was held from May 3-4, 2024. We interviewed both shoppers and sellers on the ground to ask about their experience in shopping and selling online and offline. 

We found that customers that participate in re-commerce as shoppers find online security an issue where they feel that they are susceptible to scams and mismatched expectations. On the conversation of affordability, these customers are price-sensitive when it comes to thrifting for clothes online and offline. However, they mentioned that there are items that they bought online that don’t give their money’s worth after going through the trouble of shopping online. Shopping online to most of these customers are set in listing platforms that don’t offer payment and delivery integrations. The convenience lies in how the customer is able to browse or come across items without needing to go to a physical thrifting center. 

The experience of customers is different from shopping physically for thrifted clothes. Some of our interviewees came from outside of the metropolitan area to come to Solana Flea Market which was situated in Quezon City, Philippines. This is the norm to flea markets that sell second hand apparel, access mostly exists in urban areas. Finding the right piece is another story as our interviewees expressed that it can take as long as 2 hours to find an item that they are satisfied with taking home. 

As for the sellers, location within the flea market can be a challenge. Foot traffic can make or break sales. These sellers go through the process of being selected as one of the organizer’s partner merchants. Similar to the shoppers’ experience, these sellers travel far from their hometown to participate in these stores. While selling onsite in these flea markets provide more security to sellers, some opt to sell online in listing platforms to have better reach to their target customers. 

The issues that sellers face are concerned with inventory management and logistics. Moreover, they are often faced with customers that haggle for the price of items. This is the flexibility that thrifting clothes enjoy as items are mostly second hand.

B3. Current solution landscape

Patch was able to identify that current existing solutions or alternatives to finding secondhand clothes does not offer the flexibility and accessibility that our target market looks for. 

The re-commerce market in the Philippines is mainly situated in Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, Carousell, flea markets, bazaars, and ukay-ukay centers. However, these solutions fall short in critical areas such as ensuring reliable quality, accurate sizing, insecure payments and deliveries. 

B4. Solution to implement

Our solution is simple. Patch wants to extend the lifespan of a clothing item’s perceived value. We want to leverage the market’s interest in sustainable consumption and offer circularity as a feasible alternative. The need for an intervention is urgent. Fast fashion’s rapid turnover and waste production are accelerating environmental damage over time. By providing a platform where users can buy and sell their pre-loved, thrifted, reworked, and vintage clothes, we can help the average Filipino subtly shift to circularity as seamlessly as possible.

Majority of Filipino online shoppers are aged 18 to 34 (i.e. Gen-Z & Millennials)

According to a Statista report studying the demographic distribution of e-commerce users in the Philippines as of June 2023, results showed that the highest proportion of Filipino online shoppers or 35.6% are in the 25-34 age range while 29.3% are in the 18-24 age range. 

Our target sellers

Patch aims to onboard people who are engaged in reworked and upcycled garments that includes but not limited to online shoppers, flea market goers, resellers, and consumers. 

We also talked to a total of 8 designers from the Katutubo Market in Bench Tower last May 11, 2024. Katutubo Market features rework sellers and designers who work with indigenous communities in the Philippines. We asked them about their sourcing process and how long it took them to create a piece. On average, the upcycled or rework designers take a week or less to create a piece, but they have to source for 2-3 months, except those who painted their pieces. On the other hand, designers who work with indigenous communities take a day or two to design a piece before they send it to the community for sewing which could take from 4 days to 2 weeks.

Our target shoppers

An ideal customer would classify themselves as part of the younger generation who are avid shoppers in the apparel market or someone who would want to explore fashion in general. 

The Philippines offers promising prospects for re-commerce apparel. 

Patch will launch its minimum marketable product in the Philippines market by Q2 2025. The Philippine market presents a promising opportunity with smartphone and internet penetration rates, coupled with high engagement in fashion e-commerce and a strong preference for circular fashion practices like thrifting and reworking. In fact, the Philippines is the most receptive market for secondhand goods in the Greater Southeast Asian region. This is one of the findings in the inaugural Carousell Recommerce Index (2021 report), a Carousell Green initiative that highlights the importance of sustainability and re-commerce in the region.

B5. Solution uniqueness

Given the issues regarding adoption of sustainable products and practices in the ecommerce industry as discussed in our previous section, we can concur that such a context gives rise to a golden opportunity for Patch to not only disrupt the Philippine market by addressing the consumer’s demand for affordable sustainable options and sufficient information to make sustainable choices, but also, in the absence of dominant players and direct competitors in this growing space of sustainable e-commerce, to seize market leadership.

Additionally, based on a 2022 Statista survey among Southeast Asian consumers, 56% of respondents in the Philippines held positive views on secondhand fashion. Given such, we can capitalize on our country’s high receptivity towards secondhand fashion and leverage it as a unique selling point to differentiate ourselves in the market.

In light of such, Patch would serve as a mobile-responsive digital space where users can practice sustainable online purchasing behavior with confidence and ease, whilst also accessing high-quality products vetted for sustainability. Through Patch, users can easily discover and purchase high-quality, eco-friendly clothing items, thereby reducing their reliance on fast fashion and effectively contributing to the reduction of waste.

Moreover, by offering a mobile-first ecommerce platform, we prioritize the accessibility and convenience of sustainable fashion for our users. We also recognize the importance of empowering consumers to make conscious purchasing decisions, which is why Patch will not only offer a diverse range of sustainable fashion options but also facilitates easy discovery and exploration of these items. Users can browse through curated collections, personalized recommendations, and engaging content to find products that align with their values and preferences. In addition to promoting sustainable consumption, Patch likewise aims to foster a sense of community and collaboration among users. Through features like user-generated content, social sharing, and interactive elements, we encourage users to connect with other users in their sustainable fashion journey, and inspire others to join the movement.

According to a survey by Rakuten Insight in December 2023, Filipino consumers identified their preferred interventions to encourage sustainable consumption practices in the country. The top three priorities included increasing the visibility and availability of sustainably made and environmentally friendly products, with 32% of respondents voting for this aspect. Additionally, an equal percentage of respondents, also at 32%, highlighted the importance of making sustainable products more affordable. Lastly, 15% of respondents expressed the need for more information on recycling and an increase in the availability of recycling plants. 

The primary features which our team is working towards for our MVP are as follows; each encompassing a range of functionalities designed to enhance the sustainable shopping experience:

1. Buy, Rent, Swap: Patch offers a variety of in-app transactions, allowing users to seamlessly engage in sustainable behavior with confidence and ease.
2. Online Escrow Service: To ensure secure transactions, Patch implements an online escrow system that protects both buyers and sellers from fraud or nonpayment, fostering trust and reliability within the platform.
3. Bidding system: With our built-in bidding system, we can assist in facilitating auctions that allows shoppers and sellers to meet halfway in value.
4. AR product try-ons: With our AR try-on technology, users can virtually experience garments before making a purchase, enhancing confidence and reducing returns.

C. Stakeholder engagement 

Engagement strategy

To capture our first customers in the Philippine market, we will release Patch in Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines – Diliman whilst manually onboarding the curators and bazaar sellers to generate our first wave of content for the said college students to explore and buy from. We are looking to partner with the local government to help us pilot our solution so that we can receive feedback on its impact to the community and influence on the citizen’s consumption behavior.

In order to optimize our market capture in these said schools we’ll be working with handpicked social media influencers who are currently students of the said universities, and will organize a launch party on-campus. In addition, we’ll be partnering with the student organizations of these institutions in order to generate increased engagement and brand visibility amongst our targeted early adopters. Ultimately, our goal is for said college students to use our platform to sell their own items with their peers thus making up the second wave of content generated on our platform.

To increase our user acquisition across our targeted markets we will implement a marketing strategy focusing on social media platforms popular among Gen Z and Millennials, such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. We will collaborate with local influencers and fashion bloggers to create buzz around our platform and generate interest among our target demographic. Additionally, we will leverage partnerships with sustainable fashion brands and participate in relevant industry events and expos to increase visibility and credibility.

Currently, we are starting to build our brand through Instagram. Leveraging its visual-centric platform, Millennials and Gen Z will be able to develop an interaction in the community we want to build. Our page is utilized for sharing contents about Patch, its purpose, and updates we are excited to share in the world of sustainable fashion.

Social support campaign performance

Patch has been supported by their home university’s program where we have received Php 20,000.00 (~USD 350.50) worth of development grant from Arete Sandbox.

As part of our grant from Arete Sandbox, we are organizing an online pop-up this May 2024. So far, we’ve talked to 29 shops like Macopa, Afterlifevisions, Weary Studios, and the bazaars under Finders Keepers.

D. Learning curve

Talking to our customers is a reality-check on our assumptions as a business. We often began to think of our business internally rather than extracting the problems from real people. We had to rethink our business model and our value proposition many times, and we are still in the process of creating a more robust foundation. We found that we have more work to be done in solidifying our impact as a business and our value proposition with our re-commerce platform. 

Going through the first module, we were introduced with concepts in circularity and how overconsumption can lead to unfavorable effects to the self, others, and the environment.

We are consistently looking for unique and creative ways to solve issues in implementing circularity in fashion in the Philippines. One that is able to extend the life of a garment. Behavioral change is difficult to do, but we are already seeing a generation who cares, thus, we want to ensure that the systems we want to put in place to give the youth a follow through in participating in re-commerce and circularity to be as seamless as possible.