Never before has the saying "new things come from the old” made so much sense. Sustainability is the topic of the moment and new ways to reduce, recycle and reuse arise daily. The second-hand market is now one of the most popular solutions in the fashion industry.

According to the "2023 Resale Report”, the global second-hand apparel market is expected to grow 3 times faster, on average, than the global apparel market overall. The biggest fans of this shopping modality are the younger generations. The study was conducted by the online resale platform ThredUp, which records total second-hand sales worth 177 billion US dollars and estimates that the value will be 351 billion US dollars as early as 2027.

Thus, 64% of Generation Z respondents say they first look for a second-hand product before buying a new one. In addition, 42% of young people are less likely to buy a garment that does not have a good resale value and almost two-thirds of retailers who resell their products believe that this will be a decisive factor for the long-term strategic growth of the company.

But the banner of sustainability isn’t the only driver for the growth of these solutions: tighter budgets are another reason for an increased demand for more economical options.

Resale platforms
Vinted and Wallapop are names that have already become familiar in consumers’ daily lives: these are two of the largest resale platforms in Portugal and abroad.

Vinted was born in 2008 when Milda was moving house and asked Justas for help to create a website that would allow her to donate her clothes to friends to literally "empty” her wardrobe. The community has today 75 million users in 16 markets and 1 000 contributors and is considered the largest clothing resale platform.

Wallapop arrived in Portugal in September 2022. In addition to the fashion category, the app allows purchasing and selling other items such as decoration, technology, computers, sports and leisure, among others. "With an average of over 100 million new products uploaded yearly on the platform, and more than 15 million users who visit it every month, Wallapop bet on the Portuguese market in 2021 after starting its internationalization phase with the entry of the platform in Italy, where it became the reuse app with the most cumulative downloads in the first half of 2022”, says the brand in a statement.

A study developed earlier this year by GfK at the request of Wallapop concluded that more than 60% of the Portuguese have already bought or sold second-hand items. The study also showed that respondents feel better about this type of purchase because they feel they are contributing to greater sustainability.

"Our analysis of the results of these surveys, and the fact that we already have hundreds of thousands of active Portuguese users in little more than two months after entering the country, shows that the Portuguese are aware of the possibilities of the reused items market. Our users are people with greater awareness of responsible consumption, who are concerned about making or saving money on their purchases, but who also want to feel good about the way they do it, more consciously and sustainably”, underlined Sara Van-Deste, Director of Special Projects at Wallapop.

Zara moves ahead with resale platform
The fashion group Inditex is also about to enter this universe, after a successful experience with Zara in the UK. The Spanish international giant is preparing to launch a service to sell second-hand clothes in Spain. According to El Economista, Ortega’s group intends to launch the online platform "Zara pre-owned” in all markets where it is present, which will include Portugal, later this year. This new platform will enable customers to buy and sell pieces, as well as donate or make sewing arrangements.