If you think of an online marketplace, you usually think of giants such as Amazon or Zalando. However, more sustainable platforms are also emerging: by 2030, the second-hand market will be twice as big as the fast-fashion market, a new report claims.
90 million consumers are convinced
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers, and marketplaces also benefit from this. For the second year, the trade association Cross-Border Commerce Europe has published a ranking of the largest sustainable marketplaces operating internationally. The absolute front runners? Second-hand platforms.
The market for second-hand fashion is growing eleven times faster than traditional retail: this year, ninety million Europeans have tried reselling for the first time, compared to sixteen million in 2020. Furthermore, 45 % of online shoppers have already bought a circular product, 7 % bought something ‘refurbished’ and 3 % went for a recycled item.
Resale consolidation
Over the next four years, the market will double to 34 billion euro, CBCommerce expects. Another five years down the line, second-hand clothing should be twice as big as the fast-fashion market, although the question is whether there will still be as much second-hand supply when fewer people buy cheap clothing.
All sorts of things are happening on the supply side: CBCommerce talks about a resale consolidation that was kicked off by the takeover of Depop by Etsy. On eBay, too, the second-hand supply has grown by a third in the past three years. The fact that the American tech-centric marketplaces ThredUP, Redbubble and Poshmark went public demonstrates once again the power of sustainable and circular models.
The top ten sustainable marketplaces in Europe are as follows:
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Vinted (Lithuania), with a 40 % share of the second-hand market in Europe.
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eBay (USA)
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Vestiaire Collective (France)
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StockX (USA)
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Depop (UK)
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Artpal (USA)
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Etsy (USA)
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Rubylane (USA)
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Amazon (USA), which now sells returned goods as second-hand items
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Spoonflower (USA)
