DISCUSSION
How Can Big Retailers Stay On Top Of The Secondhand Market?
Written by RetailWire Staff
Photo: depop
The online thrift market is getting more heated as inflation drives customers to seek more deals, and more small peer-to-peer sellers are going pro on platforms like Depop and Poshmark. This is leading some to ask if the new, more competitive thrifting landscape will impact how major retailers fold secondhand apparel and other goods into their offerings.
A recent CNBC article details anecdotes from small sellers on Depop about a growing tendency for customers to haggle for lower prices, sometimes negotiating for days to drop prices.
Depop has begun facilitating people dealing with sellers by rolling out a “Make an Offer” button on the item page. At the same time, sellers are experiencing an influx of interest. One high school student reported having an online shop on Depop, which recently reached 19,000 users, having begun as a shop just for friends.
Because of its sustainability promise and lower prices, the secondhand model has become a more significant part of mainstream retail in recent years as environmentalism has grown in popularity and inflation has led to more customers seeking ways to get more for less. Major apparel retailers have been offering secondhand clothing options, often through partnerships with startups focusing on the market.
By 2021, Macy’s, Walmart and JCPenney had all partnered on resale initiatives with thredUp, Burberry had partnered with reseller The RealReal and Neiman Marcus had purchased a minority stake in the resale platform Fashionphile, according to a Yahoo! News article at the time.
The trend has grown so popular that Business of Fashion has described a “parallel industry” of white-label resale springing up to manage the volume, with disparate retailers from fast-fashion (Shein) to luxury (Balenciaga) adding some sort of resale platform to their apps and websites.
Secondhand goods are also becoming more broadly acceptable in places where they have been outright frowned upon in the past. A Deloitte survey from the last holiday season found that customers were becoming more comfortable buying secondhand clothing to give as gifts. It found that 32 percent of holiday gifters intended to purchase resale items for giftees, up two percent from 2021.