Will Thrift Shopping be the future of the fashion industry?

Buying and selling clothes second-hand is no longer a temporary trend. Its share in total clothing sales is growing steadily, and the market in Europe is expected to reach EUR 34 billion by 2025. We went on a discovery tour of this exciting market of online marketplaces and individuals who are monetizing their wardrobes. 

Billions of dollars

Will online shopping for second-hand clothes be the future of the fashion industry? Analysts estimate that by 2030, around 18% of the clothes in an average wardrobe will be second-hand, up from 9% in 2020. In 2021, second-hand clothes in Europe accounted for 16 billion euros in sales, which is expected to more than double to 34 billion within 3 years. In America, the figures are twice as high, with a current market volume of 36 billion dollars, which is expected to grow to 77 billion by 2025. The Resale market is expected to grow 11 times faster than the traditional clothing sector by 2025.

Substantial figures, and it is therefore not surprising that various platforms already exist for the purchase and sale of second-hand clothing. In Europe, Vinted is by far the best known, alongside other players such as Vestiaire Collective, Depop or Good Karma. Some big boys have also jumped on the second-hand bandwagon, such as Decathlon, H&M with Sellpy and Zalando with Zalando Zircle.

GenZ’s and Millenials

Thrift shopping, Pre-loved, Pre-owned, the phenomenon can be found under different names. But who are these buyers and sellers today? It won't surprise you that it's mainly the younger generations who are most active: American research shows that more than 40% of Millenials and GenZ generations have bought a second-hand clothing item in the past 12 months. But also significant percentages of ‘older’ generations GenX and even Boomers indicate they have bought second-hand clothing in the past.

It doesn't take long to find the reasons for this: besides the fact that second-hand clothes are a lot cheaper, the ecological aspect also plays a role. Sustainability matters more than ever, and more and more consumers prefer quality, resellable clothing to fast fashion. A striking finding in the same research on Generation Z: Gen Z's are 165% more likely than Boomers to consider the resale value of clothing before actually buying it. Moreover, they are 83% more likely than Boomers to agree that apparel ownership is temporary.

About the ecological footprint, we found an interesting example in the image below. It compares the CO2 emissions, energy and water consumption for a newly produced garment versus a second-hand one. That, of course, makes you think.

But what about sizing?  

On the various platforms you will find little advice on sizing (apart from the size indication of the garment). This is logical, since every piece is only available in one size. But because sizes often differ between collections and brands, it remains difficult for the consumer to know whether the size of that garment will be ok. If you know that in traditional online clothing sales, 50% of all returns are due to a wrong size, then this problem must also occur on second hand platforms, right? At Shavatar, we have our solutions for that, but we'll keep them to ourselves for the time being ;).

A market to stay

It's a fact: the second-hand clothing market is one that will continue to exist - more than that - it will grow enormously. And we can only applaud that. Because globally, fast fashion creates 92 million tonnes of waste every year, and uses 79 trillion tonnes of water in its production. Less than 15% of clothing is recycled or reused. So we can do better!  

Sources:

 https://www.thredup.com/resale/#size-and-impact:

https://www.cbcommerce.eu/press-releases/the-rise-of-the-resale-second-hand-market/