According to a recent Fashionista story, online resale marketplaces could have a larger market share, and generate more revenue, than fast fashion retailers, within a decade.
Citing a heavily researched report from resale site Thredup, the story noted that, “Resale disruptors — meaning online consignment sites — will own nearly one third of closets by 2027… [and are] growing nearly 24 times faster than retail as a whole: 49 percent year-over-year, vs. 2 percent,” which looks like an Alabama-Mercer score, not a same-sector comparison.
That type of growth, the story says, means that the market could be worth $41 billion by 2022, 49 percent of which will be apparel sales, cutting into fast fashion’s vice-grip on affordable garms. “In 2017, resale had 6 percent market share while fast fashion had 9 percent. In 2027, that’s projected to be 11 percent resale, 10 percent fast fashion.”
Led by companies like Thredup, The RealReal, Poshmark, and Grailed, among others, the platform has managed to channel Millennial overconsumption into a profitable (and sustainable) business model.
“[Millennials], despite being broadly wasteful, are driving this movement,” the story says, noting that they’re simultaneously the most likely to discard items after less than five wears and “more likely to switch to thrift for environmental reasons,” which somehow tracks.
Regardless of motivation, however, the fact that 40 percent of 18-24 year olds shopped resale last year, as the report found, is incredibly encouraging, because of all the ways to make fashion sustainable, simply making less shit is probably our best option.
You can read more about it at Fashionista.
