We’ve all experienced that familiar sequence of online shopping temptation: browsing countless products, enthusiastically filling a digital cart with enticing options, and proceeding to finalize the purchase. The thrill of acquisition is often followed by a hint of regret when the total surpasses our original budget. Soon enough, reality sets in—those stylish jeans may not fit quite right, or that elegantly cut jacket might turn out to be nearly indistinguishable from the one already hanging in our closet. Inevitably, at least one item finds itself relegated to the corner of the room, awaiting a return shipment that will send it back to the seller. This simple, personal scenario illustrates a far broader commercial and environmental dilemma. The immense convenience of online shopping—instant purchasing, unlimited selection, and the absence of fitting rooms—has created a culture where returning goods has become nearly as habitual as buying them. E-commerce, while transforming accessibility and consumer reach, has also unleashed an unprecedented surge in product returns. According to data released in an October report by the National Retail Federation, approximately one in every five online purchases will be returned this year—a staggering proportion when measured against the total scale of digital commerce. The story, however, doesn’t end when a parcel is dropped at the courier’s door. A large percentage of these returned goods never reappear on retail websites. The process of reintegrating them into inventory—inspecting, cleaning, photographing, and relisting—demands significant time, human labor, and logistical resources, often rendering the effort economically impractical. Retailers, faced with tight margins and the relentless pace of new product cycles, frequently choose a simpler, if more destructive, alternative. Pallets of returned merchandise are sold off in bulk to liquidation companies, exported abroad for resale in secondary markets, or, more troublingly, disposed of entirely in landfills. When questioned about the specific destinations of these rejected items, Adarsh Alphons, cofounder and CEO of Postmoda, told Business Insider that few within the industry were willing to discuss the matter openly. “Where is it ending up? Nobody would talk to us about it. Brands wouldn’t talk to us, merchandising officers wouldn’t talk to us,” he explained, describing a pervasive silence surrounding the issue. The reason is simple and unsettling: the truth is damaging not only to corporate reputations but to the planet itself. The economic magnitude of the problem is striking. In 2023 alone, apparel companies collectively spent an estimated $25.1 billion managing and processing returns, according to a comprehensive survey by Coresight Research involving one hundred apparel retailers. The environmental cost runs parallel to the financial burden. In the same year, Optoro, a firm specializing in returns logistics, calculated that more than eight billion pounds of returned goods found their final resting place in landfills. “They just think of it as the cost of doing business,” Alphons observed. Yet he is determined to prove that this cost need not be inevitable. Alphons’s company, Postmoda, is preparing to launch publicly with an ambitious vision: to intercept luxury and designer returns before they reach the landfill, transforming what has long been seen as waste into renewed opportunity. By partnering directly with retailers, Postmoda intends to extract value from returned merchandise, providing discerning consumers with access to high-end goods at a discount while simultaneously offering brands a more sustainable and profitable outlet for excess inventory. This is, however, not Alphons’s first entrepreneurial endeavor. His earlier venture, Wardrobe, launched in 2021, operated as a peer-to-peer apparel rental platform—an innovative attempt to make designer fashion more accessible while promoting circular consumption. The idea initially drew significant investor interest, securing $5.6 million over two funding rounds from notable backers including Slow Ventures and Long Journey Ventures. Yet within a year, Alphons recognized a structural limitation: the reliance on dry cleaners as intermediaries created operational friction and curtailed the company’s ability to scale effectively. Taking a strategic pause, he reassessed the evolving landscape of fashion retail and logistics. It became evident that the most pressing challenge—and therefore the greatest opportunity—lay not merely in short-term rentals, but in the increasingly unsustainable volume of e-commerce returns. “There was this huge slush that was growing because the return rates are so high because of e-commerce,” he explained, describing a flood of recirculating goods desperately in need of a better system. Testing his hypothesis, Alphons experimented by reselling millions of returned fashion items on established online marketplaces such as Poshmark and eBay. The results confirmed his intuition: the resale of returned goods, when managed carefully and efficiently, could generate substantial consumer interest and real revenue. Armed with proof of concept, he refined his business plan and reached out once again to his original investors—this time armed with a concise eight-slide presentation outlining Postmoda’s potential. “They’re just so glad that I was able to find a business that is adjacent to our business and actually see revenue,” Alphons noted. Encouraged by this clarity of vision, investors including Opendoor cofounder JD Ross and Vine cofounder Rus Yusupov decided to increase their financial commitment, contributing an additional $200,000 in January 2023. Their motivation reflected a growing recognition of two converging trends: the mounting economic impact of retail returns and the surging popularity of the secondhand luxury market. Since then, Postmoda has focused its efforts on technological development, data infrastructure, and cultivating strategic relationships with major retail partners. Postmoda’s story mirrors a familiar pattern among nimble start-ups. Companies such as Slack and YouTube only found their enduring business models after pivoting from their original missions, demonstrating how adaptability often precedes success. Whether Postmoda can replicate such a transformation remains to be seen. As Alphons himself remarked, “Founding things usually has to do with persevering and staying at it. Overnight success is actually a very rare thing. It will be like five years, and then all of a sudden, you figure it out.” Having now refined his concept and witnessed its tangible market validation, Alphons intends to accelerate expansion. His next objective is raising a Series A funding round, aimed at scaling Postmoda’s operations, strengthening partnerships with retailers, and expanding the marketplace’s reach. Postmoda’s pitch deck encapsulates this entire vision. It opens with an introductory slide bearing a promise of profitability and a succinct overview of the company’s mission. Subsequent slides delineate the precise challenge the company seeks to address—the staggering cost incurred by returns—and frame it within the broader context of consumer behavior. A particularly striking line declares, “Returns need a loss-minimization solution,” emphasizing that one in every four fashion e-commerce purchases is sent back. This phenomenon is compounded by the relentless expansion of online sales, the rise of customer habits like ‘wardrobing’—buying items only to wear them briefly before returning—and the escalating expenses tied to return shipping and processing. After defining the problem, the presentation introduces Postmoda’s solution with the phrase “We take the pain out of returns,” outlining how the platform enables retailers to monetize returned inventory both profitably and sustainably, without compromising their brand integrity. In addition, Postmoda provides valuable data analytics, offering insights into consumer preferences and identifying new customer acquisition opportunities. The accompanying visuals describe a streamlined operational flow: once a customer initiates a return, the item is directed to a Postmoda warehouse, where artificial intelligence technology assesses its quality, determines an appropriate resale price, and lists it for sale. When the product finds a buyer, the original retailer earns a portion of the revenue and gains access to detailed data about the purchaser—information that can guide future marketing strategies. Postmoda’s value proposition for participating brands encompasses four primary benefits: enhanced profitability through reduced losses, improved sustainability credentials, access to new customer segments, and comprehensive analytical insights. The deck also highlights the company’s alignment with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, offering retailers a clear advantage in an increasingly socially conscious market. The presentation concludes with a profile of Adarsh Alphons, noting his previous achievements, including founding a nonprofit that made arts education accessible to underprivileged students—a testament to his entrepreneurial creativity and social commitment. Finally, the last slide directs interested parties to Postmoda’s official website, inviting viewers to join a venture poised at the intersection of commerce, technology, and environmental responsibility.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-luxury-marketplace-postmoda-startup-raise-money-pivot-2025-11
