At its core, Seam is a matchmaking tech platform that connects people to nearby tailors, cobblers, menders and other repair services. Customers simply have to provide details about their items and their specific repair needs, allowing the app to match them with the best local artisans for the job, while on the other end, the company matches repair services with orders, and enables them to easily review booking details, set their price, and chat with each customer.
The UK-based partnership-based platform of Seam offers opportunities for both private makers and small businesses that have to meet certain requirements and standards to use the platforms’s services, such as a minimum year of experience in garment alterations, mending, leather craft, tailoring, cordwaining or jewellery, a stable work location, and demonstrable examples of previous repair work.
The solution has numerous advantages for customers, both individual consumers and brands, and repair services. Among them, increasing touch points with loyal customers, improving sales conversion through sizing alterations that can solve fit issues in the dress room and reduce return rates, enhancing sustainability efforts by helping customers to keep items in circulation for longer, and keeping products out of the waste stream. Moreover, customers can also access post-purchase data insights that provide key insights and rich data around your items and how they stand the test of time.
Since being established, the company has also been actively addressing the question of how repairs can and should be financed between brands and consumers wanting to repair their products, as it is another potential opportunity for both sides to win each others trust.
While customers use care and repair services on average four times per year and are increasingly willing to pay for wardrobe maintenance services, from tailoring and repairs through to handbag and footwear cleaning, time-bound warranty services (whereby brands and retailers offer select free repairs to customers) are shown to boost loyalty, customer engagement, and brand trust. As such, the company has successfully cooperated with numerous brands looking to develop sustainable strategies and nourish their relationship with their customer-base. Among others, adidas has had a major UK-wide partnership with Seam, where their loyalty members were offered to test the partnership, allowing them to purchase clothing repairs with their points instead of usual discounts or offers for new items.
Seam’s outlook for the next years also reveals that the partnership-based service has the potential to evolve into a subscription-based business model in the future, where customers can buy a product and consistently maintain its lifetime. Additionally, she the business is predicted to hit 12 million euro gross merchandise value in the next five years, as well as expanding to new markets across Europe and North America.
