Secondhand E-Commerce grows faster than the overall retail: new yStats.com report.
The latest publication from Germany-based online research firm yStats.com, “Global Secondhand E-Commerce 2021” offers a comprehensive overview of the online used goods market across the globe and provides insights into possible future developments of the industry based on the market values, consumer preferences, and shopping intentions, as well as various players activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, an already established trend toward secondhand purchases accelerated even further
The COVID-19 pandemic and general interest in the circular economy, plus global waste reduction, in particular, accelerated secondhand industry growth in 2020, and this is likely to be continued in 2021. In the US alone, both the offline and online pre-owned clothing market were forecasted to rise much faster than the total market for apparel. In China, despite the country being one of the largest producers of fast fashion, the market value of secondhand E-Commerce has grown rapidly since 2016. Even with the overall economic disruptions in 2020, the absolute value of the used goods market was substantially higher than in 2019. The number of secondhand E-Commerce purchasers in China also reached an all-time high during the health crisis. Meanwhile, in Europe, the recently introduced regulations in France aiming to significantly reduce industrial waste are likely to spread to other nations and positively impact the whole secondhand industry. Overall, globally, more than six in ten respondents to a 2020 survey, ranked “buying more from online secondhand platforms” among top priorities after COVID-19, according to the new yStats.com market report.
E-Commerce players see new opportunities in the online secondhand market amid COVID-19
Globally, various E-Commerce companies are increasingly searching for opportunities to get on the train of secondhand product sales. Among others, for example, in 2020, European Zalando and About You launched their pre-owned clothing categories and US-based Poshmark launched Reposh. Moreover, in 2021, the latter went outside North America for the first time. Meanwhile, Japanese Mercari saw new opportunities for it on the Chinese market during the pandemic and decided to enter the market via one of the most popular E-Commerce platforms in the country. At the same time, there are two main players in the secondhand E-Commerce market in China: Alibaba-owned Xianyu and Tencent with Zhuanzhuan. Nevertheless, some other players are already providing new competition as interest in the purchase of used items spreads, as detailed in the new yStats.com publication.
