Buying used has never been so popular. Whether for environmental reasons, to save money or to find unique items, second-hand shopping is gaining more and more followers. In the clothing sector alone, the size of this market could double by 2025. Portrait of the situation.
In May 2021, the popular European online platform for the resale of second-hand clothing between individuals Vinted landed in Canada. Canadians have long traded goods at thrift stores, garage sales, on Kijiji, in social media trading groups, or more recently on Facebook Marketplace, but the supply is growing to meet growing demand. , particularly in the fashion industry.
According to a report from ThredUP, an online second-hand clothing resale platform, the second-hand market is expected to reach US $ 77 billion by 2025, up from around US $ 31 billion in 2021. According to their estimates, the size of this market could even reach the double that of the fast fashion by 2030.
Thanks to the circular economy, the lifespan of our goods no longer ends when they no longer please us. In many cases, they retain their value and may end up in the hands of other users, happy to obtain them at a lower cost. If in 2016, a majority of consumers (55%) were still unwilling to consume second-hand products, in 2020, they were only a minority (14%) – the vast majority (86%) claiming to have consumed second-hand or open to doing so, according to the ThredUP report.
Several companies have also scented the good deal, or rather the urgency not to miss the boat if their consumers start to prefer used over new. According to ThredUP, the adoption of resale by retailers is expected to accelerate in the coming years, with 60% of them already offering this service or being open to doing so.
Some companies already resell their products themselves (Decathlon or Ikea), others collaborate with resale platforms (the luxury brand Burberry with TheRealReal) or invest in them (H&M is the majority shareholder of Sellpy). But in some cases, they are much more reluctant: as is the case with Chanel, in legal dispute with the store What Goes Around Comes Around and with TheRealReal.
A boom here too
In Quebec, the founder and director of the clothing resale platform Bon Magasinage has witnessed the marked enthusiasm for this phenomenon in recent years.
“At the moment, we have nearly 40,000 users on our platform. But when we launched the site about two and a half years ago, our community was 2,000 people. So it still grew a lot, ”testifies Candice Bouchez.
“At the beginning, it was very concentrated in Montreal. Now our platform is available across Canada. Each month, around 2,500 people join us. And that’s only through word of mouth. We haven’t even started marketing and advertising yet, ”she says.
In Canada, according to the 2019 Kijiji Index of Second-Hand Economy Trends, the most consumed second-hand product categories by far remained clothing, footwear and accessories (29%), followed by entertainment goods (13%), articles for babies (8%), games and toys (8%), furniture (5%) or even objects and decorations for the home (4%).
Shop “green and economical”
The boom in the second-hand market is driven primarily by young Gen Z and millennials, eager to save money while being more responsible in their consumption choices.
Frédérike Clermont, a student at the University of Quebec in Rimouski, swears by the second hand. His latest find: a Magic Bullet robot mixer for just $ 6, while it sells for almost $ 50 on the market.
“When I shop for second-hand items, it’s often to save money,” she explains. “But when I buy second-hand clothes, I do it mostly because I don’t want to buy fast fashion. I do it for environmental reasons. Sometimes I could buy myself new clothes for the same price, except I prefer not to. “
The fashion industry is indeed one of the most polluting, by far. According to the World Bank, the sector is responsible for around 10% of the world’s annual carbon emissions, more than what all international flights and maritime transport produce. At this rate, the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions could climb more than 50% by 2030.
“Second-hand consumption, that teaches us to be more patient, less impulsive in our purchases”, estimates Candice Bouchez, of Good shopping. “My wish is that we collectively become aware of acting for the climate, and that goes through the choices we make in our closet,” she adds.Have
Frédérike Clermont, however, also sees setbacks to the craze for the second hand, which she takes so much. “Some people are taking advantage of the popularity of vintage clothes to sell them at a much higher price. We see a kind of “gentrification” of thrift stores. This means that the options are even more limited for low-income people, ”she laments.
“I still see it with a positive eye that people are more and more interested in second hand and are more aware of the harmful effects of fast fashion. But unfortunately, there are people who benefit from it, as in everything ”, underlines Mme Clermont.