Whatever you wish to call it - pre-loved, vintage, secondhand, recycled - clothing has never been so, well, loved.
In good news for the planet and for a great many wallets, new data shows that 2023 was a record year for secondhand clothes sales globally, amid concern about fast fashion’s impact on the environment. Back in 2020, Giorgio Armani famously abandoned fast fashion - calling it "immoral" - and it's becoming increasingly clear that more and more consumers agree.
The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions, so the meteoric growth in resales can only be good news. In the US alone, the pre-loved market grew 15 times faster than the broader retail market in 2023, according to the report by Global Data, a retail analytics firm.
It put the global resale market at $197 billion. “Resale is now firmly embedded in the fashion landscape,” said the firm’s MD Neil Saunders. The Resale Report was commissioned by Thread Up, an online thrift store, which is in its 12th year. James Reinhart, the company’s CEO, said the findings were “proof of the seismic shift towards a more circular fashion ecosystem”.
Other eye-catching stats from the report include:
Resale will more than double by 2028, growing 6.4 x faster than the broader retail clothing sector and representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17%.
Resale is expected to more than double its market share over the next 10 years, growing at a CAGR of 11% and gaining the largest volume of share of any distribution channel by 2033.
Much of the resale growth is taking place online:
Online resale saw accelerated growth in 2023, growing at 23%
Online resale will account for half of all secondhand spend by 2025.
Online resale will more than double in the next 5 years, growing at a CAGR of 17% to reach $40 billion in 2028.
Happy shopping!