While the second hand clothes market is still relatively small in comparison to buying new, it is growing, particularly in the United States and Europe, according to Statista’s Secondhand Apparel dossier.
The shift comes amid mounting concerns for the state of the environment and heightened awareness about the role of sustainability. By extending the lifetime of items such as clothing, second hand shopping can help minimize waste, whether that’s through fewer clothes ending up in landfill or using fewer resources such as water and energy in their production. Second hand clothes include those bought through traditional thrift stores as well as online channels that offer resale marketplaces and even luxury items.
As the following chart shows, while second hand shopping has been more popular in the U.S. than the other analyzed countries since 2018, when Statista first started the survey, several countries in Europe are catching up. The French second hand market has seen the biggest gearshift, with a 13 percentage point increase in second hand shoppers in just four years. The United Kingdom trails just behind, also with nearly a third of respondents having opted for pre-owned clothes in the previous 12 months. By contrast, second hand shopping is less popular in Spain, where only 16 percent of respondents said that they had done it recently.
Although only minor, 2022 saw a slight increase across all five of these markets. Possible reasons for the change according to Statista’s Secondhand Apparel dossier include the rise of resale apps such as Depop and Vinted, as well as the growing trend for retailers such as H&M to promote second hand clothes, and the changing shopping behaviors of younger generations who are more environmentally conscious.
