The Rise of Fashion Resale Platforms

The Rise of Fashion Resale Platforms

By: Akilah Frye

In modern times, more and more people are building businesses reselling clothing through digital resale platforms, vintage stores, and third-party marketplaces. The stigma of buying high-end fashion secondhand has dissipated and your vintage finds can now make you a lot of money. 

During the pandemic, digital resale reached new heights. Depop, The RealReal, ThredUp, and even eBay are prime examples of marketplaces that are leading fashion resale. TheRealReal specializes in high-end designer brands and now has around 1 million active buyers, a huge increase from 600,000 in 2020. 

Many people are drawn to reselling some of their products because the process of listing an item on a resale platform is fairly easy. A lot of younger people use Depop, an Etsy-owned resale site to sell their products. Depop helps you create hashtags, boost your items so more people can view them, and allows you to communicate with consumers who put up an offer. Depop also automatically generates shipping labels when someone purchases their item, making the shipping process easy. 

According to the ThredUp 2023 Resale Report, the global secondhand market is expected to nearly double by 2027, reaching $350 billion. 

“While value continues to be a key driver that motivates consumers to think secondhand first, global climate issues have increased awareness of resale’s potential to reduce fashion’s impact on the environment,” said James Reinhart, ThredUP CEO.

The ThredUp 2023 Resale Report said secondhand shopping saw a 28% increase in 2022 and it is predicted that by 2024, 20% of the global apparel market is expected to be made up of secondhand apparel. By buying and wearing secondhand clothing, carbon emissions are reduced by an average of 25%.

There is an overproduction problem in fashion, leaving resale with the opportunity to cut clothing production. With resale on the rise, some companies are focusing on increasing their use of recycled and sustainably sourced materials. More than 100 billion garments are produced globally each year, with a global population of 8 billion. 

Resale is opening the eyes of consumers. When making purchase decisions, more consumers are taking into consideration the ecological and social issues tied into the fashion they love. 

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