With an estimated value of between $100 and $120 billion worldwide, the second-hand market for clothing, footwear, and accessories has nearly tripled in size since 2020 and shows no signs of slowing down. This is the report "What an Accelerating Secondhand Market Means for Fashion Brands and Retailers," the third in a series of collaborations between BCG and Vestiaire Collective, a global platform active in the United States, Europe and Asia.
- The secondhand fashionand luxury market is big, and it’s quickly getting bigger. You can find the report from 2019 here and the report from 2020 here.
The resale market currently accounts for 3 to 5 percent of the overall apparel, footwear, and accessories sector and could reach up to 40 percent. It is projected to make up 27 percent of the average buyer’s closets by 2023.
The resale market is boosted by Gen-Z consumers, the aptest to both sell (44 percent) and buy (31 percent) preowned items. Millennials follow close behind. The analysts said that Affordability was the number one driver for buying secondhand items among more than half of the respondents, but this trend is declining. Sustainability is an increasingly popular driving force for purchasing preowned clothing, with 40 percent of buyers viewing resale as their way to consume fashion sustainably and the same number choosing pre-owned goods for the product variety it offers.
Most sellers (60 percent) are looking to clean out their wardrobes. That same number said that they sought to recover the residual value of their item and either spend it on other secondhand (39 percent) or new (20 percent) products or, in general (39 percent).
On a less positive note, the report has revealed that fears of counterfeit or poor-quality goods still deter several potential buyers. The increasing number of businesses entering the resale market could help mitigate the consumers’ fear of counterfeiting. However, being on the resale market can be resource intensive for businesses, cause inventory issues and risk product cannibalization, BCG analysts said.
