‘I’ve gone from working in pubs on minimum wage to re-selling pre-loved clothes on eBay and making £100k in six months’

A fashion enthusiast who has gone from working in pubs on minimum wage to re-selling pre-loved clothing on eBay has turned over £100,000 in six months this year.

Emily Benton, 34, from Bewdley, Worcestershire, is passionate about fashion – she loves charity shops, car boot sales and studied the subject at college, and she was hoping to study knitting at university.

After leaving college at the age of 18, however, she “fell into” the hospitality sector, progressing from waitress to head receptionist at a hotel, before working as a pub manager for several years.

While she considered running her own pub as the next step in her career, she realised she was “done” with hospitality and instead opened a consignment-based brick-and-mortar shop in 2018 called The Fluffy Cow.

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced shops to shut in 2020, Emily had to re-evaluate her next steps – and with some prior success from re-selling clothes and shoes on eBay, she decided to do this full-time.

She is now successfully running her own business on eBay under the same name, The Fluffy Cow, and has already reached her annual goal of turning over £100,000.

“I wish I would have had this idea when I was 16,” she told PA Real Life.

“I always remember going into charity shops and thinking, ‘that is amazing but it doesn’t fit’.

“So, if something in my head would have gone, ‘that is amazing, it doesn’t fit, but it would fit somebody else’, I feel like could have done this business 20 years ago.”

Growing up, Emily said her family often bought clothes from charity shops and it was always an enjoyable experience.

After studying fashion at college, she had dreams of attending Nottingham Trent University to study knitting but ended up working in the hospitality sector.

She progressed from waitress to hotel receptionist and eventually managed pubs, but after working on minimum wage with “long unsociable hours” for several years, she knew she wanted to try something different.

“I think I just got distracted by the money when I was younger instead of following education,” she explained.

“Hospitality pay when you’re young isn’t that bad, so I just chose a work path as opposed to education.”

After visiting a dress agency store in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Emily was inspired to set up her own consignment shop in her hometown.

With a £10,000 loan from her mother, the duo set up The Fluffy Cow in Bewdley in 2018, and they focused on selling clothing on behalf of customers.

Speaking about the reason for the name, Emily said: “We’d secured the shop but we needed a name and we needed to file on Companies House to get set up.

“We went over all the normal names like Emily’s Wardrobe, Emily’s Closet, and I just didn’t like them.

“So, I literally went on Google and put in ‘unique animals’, and a big, fat, fluffy cow came up, so I just thought, that’s it.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced shops to close, Emily said they were in “limbo” – but she had some prior experience selling clothing and shoes on eBay as a hobby.

One Christmas, Emily said she ventured into a Mega Value shop, owned by Sports Direct, and there was a “whole wall full of shoes” from luxury brands, including Marc Jacobs, Gucci, Prada and Vivienne Westwood.

She said every pair was being sold for a fiver and, after buying some Marc Jacobs snow boots, she sold them on eBay for £35 that night – and “this is where (her) re-selling started”.

“All the pieces just came together at once because I had never bought clothes to sell for profit,” she said.

“I feel like I’ve always been business-minded, i.e. with pubs, I used to do the books and I know profits and so on and so forth.

“But when I used to go to charity shops when I was younger, it never registered in my head that there was a whole circle of re-sellers out there who actually bought something for 50p and sold it for £10.”

Emily said she bought and re-sold other items from the Mega Value shop, describing the prices for these luxury items as “mind-blowing”, and she did the same with products from charity shops and car boot sales.

One time, she said she bought a Laura Ashley dress from a car boot sale for £35 and sold it for £350 and, on another occasion, she found a Saint Laurent dress for £5 in the Mega Value shop and sold it for around £500.

Speaking about the Laura Ashley dress, she said: “It was a 1970s dress, so they’re collector’s pieces… it’s crazy (what you can find).”

When Emily’s shop closed, she had remaining stock which she listed on eBay to re-sell, and she has since transitioned to selling full-time on the platform.

She is now focused on working with brands and retailers to help re-sell pre-loved clothing, as well as non-faulty store returns and end-of-line pieces, and buying from charity shops and car boot sales.

“It’s about sustainability, too,” she explained.

“When I’m buying from the wholesalers, retail returns, it’s great what those companies are doing because it’s saving them from landfill.”

Emily initially started running the business from her spare bedroom but soon rented her own unit to accommodate more stock.

She said she will buy 300 items at one time, often saving clothing that would eventually end up in landfill, and she will photograph and list each one herself.

However, since she started doing eBay Live streams – where she sells items in real time in an auction format – she said it has “boosted” her sales and expanded her “Fluffy Cow family”.

She said she does three to four live streams per week on average, selling 100 to 150 items each time, and she once did a 24-hour live stream where she was awake for 36 hours and sold 750 pieces.

Emily described the feedback from her business as “insane” and said she loves the community feel.

“I’m now on eBay Live and it has boosted, absolutely boosted, my business to a level that I didn’t even see coming,” she said.

“Last year, I turned over £86,000 on eBay as a whole. My aim for this year was £100,000 and I’ve already reached that.”

Looking ahead, Emily is hoping to employ staff and to work with more brands directly to re-sell their end-of-line or retail return items.

However, in the future, she has dreams of one day having her own knitwear business as she feels there is nothing better than a “granny’s handmade knitted jumper”.

Speaking about the journey so far, she said: “It’s mind-blowing that eBay has become my full-time career.

“You never know what’s around the corner.”

Speaking about her advice to others, she added: “Literally anybody can do this job.

“It’s saving clothes from landfill and it’s a sustainable career, and it’s just like a treasure hunt every day.”