resale

Secondhand market expected to double to $77B by 2025: ThredUp report

Resale is the major driver of the increase, and will grow 11x faster than the overall apparel industry.
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You can drop hundreds on a new Comme des Garçons T-shirt—or you could thrift for it. Increasingly, consumers want to try the latter.

By 2025, the secondhand market is expected to double from $36 billion this year to $77 billion, according to ThredUp’s just-released report on resale (conducted with GlobalData).

  • Resale is the major driver of the increase, and is projected to make up 61% of the secondhand market by then.
  • It will grow 11x faster than the overall apparel industry, per the report.

Top of mind: Companies see that customers are looking for cheaper, more sustainable alternatives, ThredUp President Anthony Marino told Retail Brew.

60% of retailers offer or are open to offering secondhand, the report said, and we’ve seen deals aplenty lately.

  • Etsy agreed to acquire Gen Z fav Depop—which has ~30 million users in ~150 countries—for $1.6+ billion, while Rent the Runway is entering resale (no membership required) as a way of bouncing back from the pandemic.

“There's a younger generation that's adopting secondhand very quickly,” Marino said, sharing that more than 40% of millennials and Gen Z shoppers bought used apparel, shoes, and accessories in the past 12 months.

The big picture: The pandemicjuiced resale into a force with staying power. 33 million people shopped secondhand for the first time in 2020, the report said. And across the board, 42% of consumers plan to devote more $$ to secondhand in the next five years—the biggest category shift in spending.—KM

Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.