Summary

Second-hand and Refurbished: What Drives Online Shoppers?
The Second-hand Market Is in Full Bloom Democratization
Second-Hand and Refurbished Market: Retailers Must Embrace It or Die
5 min

Second-hand and Refurbished: Market focus

Year 2008: Milda Mitkute is moving and piling up clothes in cardboard boxes. She’s been a serial shopper for years and now, she can’t deny the overwhelming amount of her clothes 👗. Her friend Justas Janauskas is much more inclined to launch a website than handle boxes: he comes up with the idea of a sales app that will earn her money while getting rid of the pieces she’s fallen out of love with.

Before Milda and Justa, second-hand shopping meant going to Goodwill or other thrift stores. Nowadays, thanks to the pair, you can fetch second-hand Nike sneakers for half price from the comfort of your bathroom 👟. 15 years and 45 million users later, everybody knows Vinted.

  • Nearly one out of two French customers has already experienced buying second-hand, but what motivates e-shoppers to buy preloved items?
  • Is buying used and refurbished just a fad for the younger generations?
  • How can brands react and respond to these new consumer habits?

Foxintelligence answers these questions with key figures.

reconditionne_seconde_main_occasion-scaled

Second-hand and Refurbished: What Drives Online Shoppers?

Bargain Shopping

Motivations to turn to second-hand products are multiple, but the financial aspect comes first. For e-shoppers, there’s a double advantage:

  • They buy second-hand and save money.
  • They sell what they no longer use and make money.

This proves even more relevant in times of rising prices. Second-hand sites address the problems of a diminished purchasing power, along with consumer demand for goods at knock-down costs.

Bargain Shopping

Motivations to turn to second-hand products are multiple, but the financial aspect comes first. For e-shoppers, there’s a double advantage:

  • They buy second-hand and save money.
  • They sell what they no longer use and make money.

This proves even more relevant in times of rising prices. Second-hand sites address the problems of a diminished purchasing power, along with consumer demand for goods at knock-down costs.

Second-hand Shopping for a Conscious Living

Activism comes in close number two as a motivation: to commit to buying only preloved products is to move away from overproduction and overconsumption.

Consumers’ awareness is on the rise, and more and more of them feel concerned by environmental issues: they know that producing their favourite Levi’s jeans costs the planet more than 1540 gallons of water. Once they realize that they can find a second-hand pair at half the cost for them and zero impact on the earth’s natural resources, it’s a no-brainer. And it’s even more true with tech products: by acquiring refurbished devices, they reduce the high environmental debt while saving massively.

The second-hand market is booming because it responds to these new consumer trends: spending less and buying more.
Evolution-of-the-second-hand-market-penetration-rate

The Second-hand Market Is in Full Bloom Democratization

Preloved Shopping: No Longer a Matter of Generations

When you buy second-hand and refurbished products, you act for the environment. An awakening that lifts taboos and prejudices against used-item purchases: far from a mere trend, the second-hand market is here to last, and in full expansion.

A movement that is confirmed throughout the EU5, particularly in France, where the market penetration rate has tripled in 5 years: from 14% in 2017 to 41% in 2022.

However, this new situation didn’t happen over a few days: buying second-hand had to become socially acceptable. Today, it’s considered a valued mode of consumption across all classes and generations.

And contrary to popular belief, young people aren’t the only ones buying preloved; not any more.

The generational splits show that we can’t dismiss the weight of other generations in the phenomenon. The Gen X (1960–1979) represents 15% of buyers in France – up to 19% in Spain – . One in five second-hand Spanish shoppers are Gen Xers, a number that makes them a significant part of the market.

Get your weekly dose
of e-commerce insights

Subscribe

Second-Hand and Refurbished Market: Retailers Must Embrace It or Die

Second-hand and refurbished products – consumers increasingly want to partake in a circular economy.

This constitutes growth opportunities for retailers. Several avenues open before them:

  • Take-back products policies: like Kiabi which recently opened its own second-hand platform. User-friendly too: you can resell all the clothes you no longer wear whether Kiabi or not. Sell a pair of jeans for €10 and receive €10 or get a €12 Kiabi voucher. Ditto for the buyer who will receive a €2 voucher to spend on the brand’s website for their €10 purchase.
  • Buyback and reconditioning: Smartphones, tablets, game consoles: Boulanger buys back your Tech devices in exchange for a voucher valid in all its stores. You can either bring your product to the store or send it to their dedicated site. Then, the company will recondition the product and will sell it … for a second time.

To keep their market value, there’s no other choice than to embrace the full spectrum of second-hand retail. All lights are green for retailers and marketplaces as well: in our present macroeconomic context, the circular economy has become an obvious choice for consumers. Even more: it has become a key purchase criterion.

Buying Used = Buying Less?

In France, the UK, Italy and Spain, second-hand shoppers aren’t buying less, far from it: the frequency of preloved fashion purchases exceeds the ordinary fashion market. The attraction of bargain prices is real and drives e-shoppers to buy more.

German buyers go against the grain, as their buying habits place purchases of new items at 3 to 1 for second-hand. In fact, the second-hand market is struggling to take off on the German market, where Vinted’s market share stalls in 2022.
Breakdown-of-sales-by-generation

+100

companies use Foxintelligence daily to understand everything about their market, their competitors and their customers thanks to our panel of +5M e-shoppers.
Book a demo

Other articles

Les chiffres du lancement des soldes en France

Winter Sales in France: eCommerce Overview of the First Days

After the Christmas sales report, here is the eCommerce overview of the sales launch! The …

ecommerce-bilan-foxintelligence

First Semester of 2023 : Ecommerce Report & Key Insights

The 1st half of the year has just passed – time for a snapshot of …

temu_france

Temu’s Arrival in France: The App That Dethrones Shein?

Temu is a marketplace that offers millions of products at extremely low prices (sometimes less …

Want to get smart insights and the latest Foxintelligence news ?
contact@foxintelligence.io
+33 7 68 74 36 17
A 30-minute time slot to explore the platform.

During this appointment, we will present our methodology and various use cases for different industries based on the utilization of our 10,000 users.

Book a demo

Terms | Privacy

©2023 Foxintelligence
Try for free

Explore

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

  • Help center
  • Contact
  • Jobs

Insights

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry, when an unknown printer took a galley of type to make a type specimen book.

I want to see

Blog
Webinars
White papers
Ecommerce Connect
Press

Solutions

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

I need to

Know market shares & trends
Discover best selling vendors or products
Analyze marketplaces
Optimize price, delivery & discount
Understand share of wallet, loyalty & churn
Correlate consumer profile with sales
Ad hoc market data

I’m in