Vol.10: Buy it, wear it, sell it ♻️
Newsletter covering the latest in fashion, tech and wellness
Long time, no see! Hope you had a good summer 😎. For those who know me, you are probably aware that I have a black belt in secondhand shopping (if you didn’t, now you do!) The next series of this newsletter, will cover the fashion resale market in detail:
(1) what are the main trends driving the $50bn secondhand market (you’re reading it now ✔️);
(2) what are the main challenges facing secondhand platforms;
(3) what’s next?
…Let’s dive into the facts 🕵️.
THE FACTS (yada yada 🤓)
ThredUp, amongst the world's largest online thrift stores, estimated in a recent report that resale is growing 21x (!) relative to the broader retail sector, to a $51bn market.
Before the pandemic, 2023 was poised to be the year the resale market hit the $50bn threshold, but was accelerated by a rapid shift in consumer perceptions under 2020, predominantly driven by more aware customers favoring conscious and environment-friendly consumption.
Additionally, the growth was fueled by a structural shock stemming from faulty supply chains at traditional retailers, creating an ideal environment for the resale market. Some proactive retailers have even responded to this by partnering with niche players in the resale market. The interesting point here is that second-hand sales does not necessarily decrease new good purchases, but could simply move them to new channels.
Who is the typical second-hand customer? 🤠
According to Linkfluence, there were 5.8m recorded English-speaking conversations on fashion last year, of which c.10% (570k), explicitly linked sustainability and second hand shopping. If assessing the same data by demographic, Gen Z accounted for half of these (c.55%), which could be driven by many factors, such as mobile phone penetration and tech savviness, relatively lower disposable income than other age groups, more open-minded approach to consumption and more trend-focused.
In this context, Depop’s exemplary rise as the #1 resale marketplace of choice for Gen-Z doesn’t come as a surprise.
Notable movements in secondhand 👜
Partnerships 🤝:
M&A / IPO 🤑:
High-fashion marketplace Farfetch files for IPO at $6.2bn valuation (Sep, 2018)
Second-hand marketplace PoshMark files for IPO at $3.5bn valuation (Jan, 2021)
Online thrift store Thredup files for $1.3bn IPO (Mar, 2021)
VC Investments 🚀:
Luxury fashion reseller Cudoni completes a £4.6m venture round (Nov, 2020)
Online secondhand marketplace giant Vestiaire Collective receives €178m (Mar, 2021)
Online secondhand marketplace Vinted raises €303m (May, 2021)
For a guide on where to buy and sell preloved items, check my earlier post < here >✍️.
The secondhand fashion market remains fragmented with several larger players - having dissected most of the larger players’ business models (and flaws), there is still room to disrupt this $50bn+ market. Stay tuned for my next post for a comparison of the players in the current landscape and why it is so inherently complex to create the leading secondhand resale platform.
Further reading: