American consumers are more open to buy and sell secondhand apparel than ever before: the resale market has grown 21 times faster than the retail fashion market over the past three years and is projected to grow from 24 billion US dollars to 51 billion US dollars in the next five years, according to ThredUp’s annual Resale Report. That means the secondhand market will be 1.5 times bigger than fast fashion by 2028, when used items are forecasted to account for an average of 13 percent of people’s closets.
Over 56 million American women bought secondhand products in 2018, up from 44 million in 2017. Additionally, 56 percent of women over 18 years old said they are willing to buy secondhand products, up from 45 percent two years ago. 72 percent of those who shop secondhand are shifting their spending away from traditional retailers, with an average of 8 new apparel items replaced with used items within the past 12 months. Considering those shoppers spend an average of 32.53 US dollars per item, that’s 260 US dollars diverted to the secondhand market per person each year.
