New Trend Of Fashion Under The Epidemic Situation: The Second Hand Clothing Market Is Facing A Turning Point

The new outbreak has changed a lot of things. For the fashion second-hand market, new crown means opportunity and turning point. Nothing makes many Americans realize that they have a lot of clothes than being stuck at home for a year. Of course, the stress-induced overeating has left many people unable to wear a considerable amount of clothes in the wardrobe, and for consumers with shrinking incomes, it makes sense to sell clothes that are useless to them. These are the reasons behind the sharp increase in sales of second-hand websites.

Fashion second hand clothing market

"Today's consumers focus on value. A few years ago, in the era of "conspicuous consumption", some people liked to boast that they spent "more" and less money on things. Today's consumers care how little they pay. Moreover, today's consumers are also environmentally conscious, which makes secondhand clothing and furniture a hot commodity. "

——National resale Association

According to statista, the global second-hand clothing market is valued at $28 billion in 2019. It is expected to soar to $64 billion by 2024.

"Consumers around the world are prioritizing value and accelerating the transition to frugality," Anthony Marino, President of thredUP, said in the company's 2020 resale report. When time becomes uncertain, we all focus on our family balance sheets. If the core idea of a brand is to provide value and convenience to consumers, it will have a better chance to gain market share. Amazon, low price and resale are becoming winners. "

According to the cotton INCORPORATED Global wearability study 2020 (June 2020), more than half of consumers (55%) have purchased second-hand clothes. For most people who buy second-hand clothing (82%), second-hand clothing accounts for less than half of the total number of clothes in their wardrobe.

One third (31%) of 45% of consumers said they planned to buy second-hand clothing.

According to the global wearability research, consumers said that the main reason for buying second-hand clothing was to save money (76%), one third (35%) said they wanted to experience the second-hand clothing purchase, 33% thought this behavior was more sustainable / environmentally friendly, 32% said they liked to try new styles or brands, 27% said it was more convenient, and 24% said it was for better clothing quality.

Given that Americans, on average, only wear 20% of their wardrobe, it makes sense to give new life to old clothes so that they don't hang up forever, according to California closets. On the other hand, Americans are throwing away their clothes ton by ton. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 17 million tons of textile waste were generated in 2018. Among them, 11.3 million tons entered the landfill site. That's a big increase over 2015, when Americans produced 16 million tons of textile waste and 10.5 million tons were landfilled.

That's why the second-hand market is seen as a sustainable option. According to the U.S. consumer tracking survey conducted by coresight research, consumers pay more attention to sustainability after the outbreak crisis. About 29% of the respondents said that the epidemic made the environmental protection of clothing an important factor in their purchase decision, which indicated the demand of the current and even the near future resale market.

Goodwill Industries, which is located in southeastern Wisconsin and the Chicago metropolitan, said it would keep about 85000 tons of clothing out of landfills in 2019. And these are just some of the 3000 charity stores run by the nonprofit, as well as online stores with more than $1 billion in sales this month. According to the National Association of second-hand stores (NARTs), Goodwill Industries is part of a network of more than 25000 resale, consignment and charity stores in the United States.

In addition to independent stores, a considerable number of online second-hand merchants are moving from Zara to Zac Posen. Websites include realreal, vestaire collective, poshmark, worthy and kidizen, as well as trade, depop, vented and mercari. Designers and brands are also studying how to take advantage of this trend: Gucci has an exclusive partnership with realreal. Reeves has entered the repo and resale markets. Ralph Lauren is also considering how to get into this fast-growing market. Even independent designers and craftsmen can participate through websites such as noihsaf bazaar.

Coresight said resale, especially fashion resale, is increasingly becoming the mainstream as American consumers pursue product value. Ellen Wheeler, general representative of the textiles division of the International Bureau of recycling, said, "fashion design needs to consider durability and recycling. When people use up, they can find ways to reuse them."

Fast company reports that as of 2019, it has $4.1 billion in clothing inventory, some of which is used as fuel for power plants. Meanwhile, in the UK, drpress reported that some fashion retailers were considering burning clothes returned by European customers because they found it easier and cheaper than sending them back, so they burned textile waste.

But now consumers are making it clearer than ever that they don't want cheap disposable clothes. On the contrary, according to the global wearability study, 91% of consumers say that the clothes they buy must be durable. The majority of consumers (78%) actively look for wear-resistant clothing to extend the service life of their purchased clothing.

According to the global wearability research, 70% of consumers (70%) expect the service life of cotton clothing to exceed that of man-made fiber.

According to the global wearability research, the clothing that consumers wear the longest in the wardrobe is about six years. The general cotton or cotton blended (average cotton content of 53%) not only lasts for more than five years, but also most (62%) look very good and can still be worn out.

Clothing made of durable fiber is the key to long service life of clothing. According to NARTs, resale will continue to be popular and become a more important part of the retail industry.

"Through word of mouth, let more people realize the value of resale and find it an interesting, convenient and friendly shopping experience," said the head of the organization. "Today's consumers focus on value. A few years ago, in the era of "conspicuous consumption", some people liked to boast that they spent "more" and less money on things. Today's consumers care how little they pay. Today's consumers are also environmentally conscious, making recycled clothing and furniture a hot commodity. "