Pre-Loved School Wear Article

Pre-Loved School Wear

Articles published in The CWB Magazine

 

Niki Khera, Director, Uniforms by Niki, Essex

CWB Magazine

Sept/Oct Edition 2023

“We provide offers and discounts throughout the year during the quiet period, however, this year we introduced our Early Bird offer in May, which was a huge success. It gave parents an opportunity to purchase before the busy period and receive a discount on their order.

We are the only schoolwear supplier in Thurrock to offer pre-loved school uniform online and in-store via our UniCycle Programme. We take donations from parents and lost property from schools which we then wash, dry and list on our website, so parents can purchase these items online. Our programme has been running for five years and we are seeing increased demand for more pre-loved schoolwear each year, mostly during the quieter period from November through to January.

In terms of changes to shopping habits, we have seen more customers purchase branded school uniform as well as non-branded uniform. As parents continue to juggle a busy lifestyle, they are also buying earlier each year and are being more organised, especially for new year 7 and nursery and reception starters. Ultimately our customers are looking for quality, value and convenience, which is why we offer everything they need under one roof.”

 

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Niki Khera, Director, Uniforms by Niki

CWB Magazine

Sept/Oct Edition 2022

“We have been offering pre-loved school uniform to our local community for the last four years. Plain items are donated to charities, but any item with a logo is offered to our community via our online store and our shop in Walton Hall Farm. Prices start from £1 per item to cover our costs for collection, washing, repairing and preparing the garment for re-sale.

Our pre-loved schoolwear is sourced through the schools in our network by collecting their lost property from them and also via donations from parents. We then categorise these items in terms of wear and tear and carry out any minor repairs needed to actively ‘recycle’ the garment back into circulation for parents to purchase.

We display the pre- loved range as a clearance rail in-store and it is also offered under the pre-loved banner on our website. We make the purchase of these items as discreet as possible, treating it as any other sale so customers do not feel any shame in selecting pre-loved items. We also package and send out pre-loved garments in exactly the same way we would a new item. 

Customer feedback is that they absolutely love our pre-loved offer; we even have some parents pre-registering for items in case they come in. As one of the first companies to introduce the concept of recycling school uniform in Thurrock, we have seen several pre-loved businesses pop up since. Undoubtedly the demand for pre-loved uniform has increased due to the ever-increasing cost of living, but also because people are becoming more aware of these simple changes we could all make to our purchasing habits to create a more sustainable way of living.

We plan to continue growing our pre-loved business by accepting more lost property from the growing network of schools that we work with. As we expand our business, we hope to eventually be in the position to offer pre-loved uniform cost free through our UniCycle Project.”