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The secondhand clothing market is growing 15 times faster than traditional apparel, and people are increasingly thrifting online, a new report shows.
For the 12th year running, ThredUp released its 2024 Resale Report, an annual, data-heavy look at the fashion resale industry. The report tracks consumer sentiment around secondhand shopping, what barriers and opportunities retail executives see in the resale sector, and the rise in branded resale.
“[The data] continues to show, each year, that more and more consumers are shopping resale,” said ThredUp CEO James Reinhart. “This is the first year where it was clear that online was outperforming offline.”
But while resale’s growth is strong, analysts warn that circularity in fashion will remain elusive unless there’s a regulatory cost associated with the production and disposal of cheap clothes and shoes—the same $510 billion industry that’s undercutting resale and preventing even stronger growth potential.
1.) Resale is growing faster than the apparel market
The resale market—defined in the report as a primarily online sector of the secondhand marketing that includes ThredUp, The RealReal and upscale offline players like Buffalo Exchange—is growing faster than traditional apparel retail. That outpaced growth is predicted to continue through 2028, according to GlobalData, which conducted the market research and surveys for the report.
2.) Online resale marketshare will double by 2027
The challenging logistics of online resale have long plagued the industry’s frontrunners, with ThredUp and The RealReal struggling to turn a profit for years after they were founded in 2009 and 2011, respectively. ThredUp expects to have its first fully profitable year in 2024, Reinhart said.
As more consumers look online for secondhand, profitability could become easier for players across the entire online resale category.
