What is Recommerce?

Powering the circular economy

Recommerce is defined as a regenerative way to buy, re-use and share goods and services, including business models and activities like Resale, Repair, Rental, Refill, Return and Redistribute.

As the world is consuming more than it can replenish, a significant shift is needed in the way we use natural resources if we are to meet global net zero goals by 2050. Our current economy is only 7.2% circular a 1.9% drop since 2018¹, leaving a massive Circularity Gap. We need to close the Gap by a further 8.4% to close the Emissions Gap by 2032². The World Economic Forum showed that the transition to a circular economy could generate $4.5 trillion in additional economic output by 2030³, decoupling from linear growth that depletes planetary resources.

To accelerate the transition from a “take-make-waste” model to a circular economy, we need to rethink the way we shop and support small businesses to grow in new sustainable ways. We want to enable businesses and individuals to more easily consider the small changes they can make towards Recommerce activities like Resell, Repair, Rental, Refill, Return and Redistribute. More of us are already making choices that can add up to a big impact on people and our planet, like selling items when we no longer need them, repairing devices, or renting appliances for a short time.

According to research produced in cooperation with GlobeScan, consumers are already making progress – with half of those interviewed engaging in at least one Recommerce activity twice a year – some activities are more popular than others, and only one in five people are familiar with all aspects of Recommerce⁴.

It’s time to rethink and rebalance

Action needs to be taken to inspire individuals to rethink the way they shop and consume, because, as the world’s climate changes and the cost-of-living increases, the way we shop has never mattered more. Given the fundamental role of payments in modern global economies and its history in enabling large-scale socio-economic progress through the digital payments revolution, we believe that the payments industry has the power to enable a positive shift towards more sustainable behaviours.

Visa, with the support of Strategic Partner, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, launched the Recommerce Behavioural Insight Lab in 2023, an initiative running rapid real-world experiments to understand and share how businesses can help consumers actively engage in the transition to a more circular economy. We are working with partners to test and identify business models in experiments which focus on resale, rental, repair, refill, return and redistribution, that encourage consumers to participate in the circular economy, with the aim of closing the intent-to-action gap when it comes to sustainable habits.

Supporting SMBs to help them better understand customer preferences and the impetus for sustainable choice will help them to unlock the economic potential of the circular economy. Visa has published its first Behavioural Hacks Playbook a tool to help SMBs in their transition to implementing circular business models and increase customer demand. This is a step forward in our collective bid to unlock new business flows in the sustainability space. Visa’s partner, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation also launched The Circular Startup Index, This database is designed to help businesses discover startups and find new collaborators to facilitate innovation, scale solutions, and accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

Learn more about Recommerce and how Visa is empowering Global change here.