As consumers cut down on single-use plastic, a new product category has come into its own. Bolstered by media attention and government initiatives across the globe, reusable items including water bottles, coffee cups, straws and cutlery are quickly becoming essential products for 21st century life. Many fashion stores, both luxury and high street, are now stocking them in their lifestyle offering but are mostly being sourced from specialist brands. Designer labels could be missing an opportunity to weigh in on the trending merchandise.
Growth In The Reusables Market
In January of this year, as the UK government discussed proposals for a ‘latte levy’ to tax disposable coffee cups, retailers reported a huge increase in sales of reusable ones. Catalogue retailer Argos announced sales went up 537% when the announcement hit newsstands and Rachael Brain, COO of Robert Dyas, a hardware and household goods supplier, confirmed at the time that this was part of an ongoing trend for them, “We have seen a 50% sales uplift of reusable travel mugs year on year,” she announced in a statement to press. “This includes sales of eco-friendly, biodegradable reusable bamboo travel mugs and collapsible travel mugs. Our data shows that the public started switching to reusable travel mugs six months ago, long before the “Latte Levy” report.” In Australia, reusable coffee cup brand KeepCup struggled to manage a 690% sales enquiry spike after ABC aired War On Waste, a program highlighting the cost to the environment of our throwaway culture.
Similarly, Transparency Market Research found in a report from November 2017 that the global reusable water bottle market is set to reach $10.4 billion by 2025 and is a very fragmented market, showing opportunity for new brands to enter it. The top five brands in the sector, S’Well Corporation, Tupperware Brands Corporation, Brita, Camelbak Products and Nalge Nunc International Corporation, accounted for just 6% of market share.
While a few high street, and some affordable luxury brands, have jumped to create their own designs of reusable plastic alternatives, including H&M and Kate Spade, big name designer labels are yet to add them to their product mix.
S’well has turned ‘Instagrammable’ water bottles into a $100 million business
One of the market leaders, S’Well, who launched in 2010, is proof that there’s demand from customers who want everything in their life to be premium. While prices for their design-focused reusable water bottles start at $25, a limited-edition collaboration with Swarovski retails at $205. They’ve also partnered with other design icons such as Liberty fabrics and offer a personalization service and corporate gifting which has been taken up by TEDx and Google in the past.
In 2016, the New York-based brand announced a revenue of $100 million, purely from sales of their small product offering of personal bottles and accessories such as brushes and caps to go with them. Like many great business ideas, it was born out of founder Sarah Kauss’ own frustrations at not being able to find a stylish, top quality water bottle. She said in an interview with Forbes last year, “If I could convince an entirely new customer – a new segment of the market – to be interested, I thought that could be the big idea I’d been searching for.” By turning what was a dowdy necessity for the eco-conscious into a style statement, she’s found her product stocked in over 75 countries worldwide and inspired uptake of similar designs from other companies, so much so that copyright infringement remains one of their biggest battles.
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