Big news: eBay has announced they’re scrapping seller fees on everything except vehicles, following in the footsteps of what they did on fashion earlier this year. The secondhand clothing market is booming—global sales surged by 18% in 2023, reaching a staggering $197 billion (£156 billion), according to GlobalData. 

Preloved fashion is having a moment and shows no signs of slowing down.

 

In this article, I’m going to look at the factors that are fuelling this rise and what’s next for this movement.  So let’s start with the tech. 

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Easy Platforms... Everywhere

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Commerce platforms such as eBay, Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, & Depop have created usable and accessible platforms that facilitate fast and easy shopping. With no fees for sellers to list, and in the case of luxury fashion, a concierge service (pickup, photography, authentication) handling high value items, sellers have streamlined paths to list garments & accessories across both one off purchases and rental platforms such as Hurr and Volte. 
 

Listing, Digital IDs & Authentication

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Classification hierarchies from platforms such as eBay are extensive - they cover all aspects of a garment and facilitate standardized product information so a buyer can quickly and easily find what they are looking for. New platforms such as Oly enable multi-marketplace automatic listings. This in turn creates a positive flywheel - more buyers, and more sellers. Resellers such as Messina Hembry,  Reskinned & Luv Lux focus on segments, delivering and curating relevant information, brands and garments that they know buyers will buy.

 
Authentication solutions such as Entrupy's and product IDs have emerged in the luxury resale segment to address fraud as trust is of paramount importance. EON’s product passport collects, unifies and standardizes comprehensive product data — from raw materials and certifications to real-time lifecycle events -- embedded in the garment through QR Codes, or NFCs (Near Field Communications). This facilitates re-sale - a seller is able to populate a listing from its digital passport and share the brand authentication. This digital ID offers a comprehensive record of the item's provenance, including its ownership history and detailed condition reports, promoting transparency and building consumer trust. 

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The operational tech is the shipping and fulfillment - pickup points, low cost postage and integration into these marketplaces enable providers such as inPost to offer lockers with 24/7 access, allowing you to collect your parcels from a secure location whenever it's most convenient for you, with no risk of missed deliveries. This also can be more environmentally friendly by reducing the need for individual delivery trips, helping to minimize carbon emissions and congestion on the roads.  

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Shout about it!

Wearing a secondhand outfit in 2024 is something to shout about! This shift in perception and more widestream acceptance has been driven by the cost of living crisis, environmental consciousness and smart marketing. The trend towards pre-loved in the UK has gained more mainstream popularity, with influencers promoting secondhand style and popular reality TV show sponsorships  - Love Island from Ebay - amplifying these underlying trends and broadening appeal. Consumers are more aware of the astonishing sustainability issue in fashion as the Guardian puts it -  “there are enough garments in the world to dress the next six generations. Yet the number of clothes being produced in the global north is soaring – and poisoning poorer countries”.

Yet, this booming market comes with its own set of challenges. Trust, fraud, and profitability remain significant concerns, especially given the manual effort involved in listing and reselling clothing. Scams are an issue, with a reported third of buyers reporting fraudulent experiences. On top of that, the costs of garment processing remain high.

So what’s next? 

My prediction is that this growth will accelerate as we see more and more everyday acceptance fuelled by the application of AI powered tech to the segment. Forecasters project it will hit $350 billion by 2028.

Underpinning it will be AI facilitating more efficiency - digital authentication, passports and AI-powered computer vision will provide more transparency, authentication, speed and standardization for both sellers and buyers.  AI has the potential to truly remove these inefficiencies and streamline garment & accessory processing, listing and buying from mobile devices. AI is already able to analyze any individual clothing from a single image and also analyze any buyer from simple inputs - all from a mobile device - saving time and money for the seller and taking the guesswork and uncertainty off the buyer's shoulders. 

The real question isn’t if this change will happen—it’s how fast.

So, where do you fit in this exciting shift? 

Will you join as a seller, a buyer, or even as the marketplace owner helping drive this positive movement forward?

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PS. When you are ready to dive into more readily available AI-powered fashion tech, please do check out our Virtual Fitting Room and reach out for a chat. 

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