Why it matters:
- U.S. secondhand apparel sales jumped 14% in 2024, five times the rate of the overall apparel market.
- Tech-powered resale platforms are making it easier for retailers to offer their own branded resale programs and redefining resale as a tool to manage inventory, engage with customers, and drive profits.
- The resale boom is moving beyond apparel and gaining traction in electronics, furniture, housewares, and other categories.
The evolution of secondhand selling—and shopping—is poised to take a leap forward.
As consumer demand for secondhand options continues to soar, retailers and tech companies are perfecting ways to integrate resale into their sales channels and making it easier for shoppers to find pre-owned goods.
Brands are realizing that offering resale options not only can generate revenue but can help them connect with new consumers, boost their engagement with existing customers, and help with inventory management.
Terry Boyle, CEO of Trove, told CO— he is seeing a “sea change” in how retailers view resale. Trove is the market leader in branded resale, with a tech platform that powers resale programs at Patagonia, Canada Goose, and dozens of other brands.
Initially, Boyle said, the early retail adopters of resale were “folks focused on doing the right thing for the environment. These were passion projects and that’s why the outdoor industry has been a leader in this space.”
“But what you’re seeing now is companies who understand that they can make a profit, they can take control over their secondary market, and they can generate new customers by hitting this different category of merchandise in a different price point,” he said.
Consumers, particularly Gen Z and millennial shoppers, increasingly want to be able to consider a pre-owned option when making a purchase, he said.
“It’s become a business instead of just a passion,” Boyle said.
[Read more: Key Solutions Retailers Are Focusing on to Drive Growth This Year]
The increasing shift to online resale purchases is one of the most interesting trends documented in this year’s report, ThredUp’s Chief Strategy Officer Alon Rotem told CO—.
Apparel resale market saw double-digit growth in 2024
Worldwide, the resale apparel market jumped 17.6% last year, ringing up $204.7 billion in sales, according to research firm GlobalData.
In 2024, 68% of younger consumers shopped secondhand apparel, up three points from the previous year, according to the 2025 ThredUp Resale Report.
Of those younger shoppers, 48% said secondhand is the first place they look when shopping for apparel, according to ThredUp, an online marketplace where consumers can buy and sell women’s and kids’ clothing.
Last year, the U.S. secondhand apparel market saw its strongest growth since 2021, up 14%, five times greater than the overall apparel sales, according to the report.
Online secondhand sales expected to double by 2030—fueled in part by AI
While brick-and-mortar stores, such as consignment shops and Goodwill stores, still generate the bulk of sales, consumers increasingly are searching and buying secondhand goods online.
Online resale saw accelerated growth for the second consecutive year, up 23%, ThredUp reported.
The increasing shift to online resale purchases is one of the most interesting trends documented in this year’s report, ThredUp’s Chief Strategy Officer Alon Rotem told CO—.
He attributes that to a combination of factors, including the growth of branded resale, with brands offering pre-owned options on their websites, as well as new AI tools that are making it easier to find secondhand goods for sale.
ThredUp has added three main AI features—image search, style chat, and enhanced search capabilities. Image search lets shoppers upload any image found on the internet, or from a photo they have taken, and match it against ThredUp’s inventory.
Style chat “is essentially a conversational chatbot that you can talk to and get feedback from—sort of like an AI stylist helping you figure out what to wear,” Rotem said.
Close to one-third—32%—of consumers who bought secondhand apparel in 2024 made a purchase directly from a brand, according to the ThredUp report.
[Read more: How ‘Retail Concierges’ (Both Digital and Human) Are Poised to Disrupt the Shopping Experience]
Tech tools helping brands get into resale market
Trove, which enables the bulk of online branded resale transactions through its tech platforms, gives brands and retailers a number of ways to manage secondhand merchandise, including processing resales through a brand’s existing warehouse and fulfillment facilities or using a third-party processer.
Trove’s warehouse management software can be used to rate the condition of a traded-in or returned item and to recommend the best place to re-sell it—either the brand’s website or store, or a broader resale marketplace.
Last year, Trove rolled out a resale plug-in tool that allows brands to show a secondhand option alongside new merchandise, when a customer is searching for a particular item.
Integrating resale with a brand’s main website is a key way branded resale is evolving.
“We have a number of clients now that when a customer buys a resale item and a new item they check out in the same cart and they ship together.”
Another resale trend is the desire by brands to connect with secondhand shoppers wherever they shop—whether on a brand’s website, a resale marketplace, or social media.
Trove last year acquired Recurate, a peer-to-peer branded resale platform where individual sellers are responsible for creating listings and shipping products. The acquisition gives Trove clients the ability to launch and scale a peer-to-peer resale model in as little as four weeks.
While the majority of Trove’s clients are premium apparel and footwear brands, it is seeing growing interest from other categories as well. Home bedding brand Coyuchi has a Trove-powered resale site, as does camera gear and backpacks brand Peak Design.
“The reality is that a lot of different product categories can benefit from resale,” Boyle said.
Global strategy and management consulting company Kearney reported in December that fine jewelry has become a standout category in resale, with sales of pieces worth over $5,000 from luxury brands like Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co., and Cartier up 22% year-over-year.
New website seeks to be the Poshmark of kitchenware
Kitchen Switchen, a newly launched website featuring secondhand cookware, kitchen appliances, dinnerware, serving accessories, and other dining-related items, is hoping to grow into a Poshmark-like secondhand marketplace for cooking and entertaining enthusiasts.
It was created by Amy Powers and her daughters Brittany and Emma Valentine after Powers bought the Kitchen Switchen name, which had been previously used by a local cookware consignment store near Powers’ home in Arizona.
The goal is to attract sellers with fees that are lower than eBay and other sites, and buyers by creating what the founders are calling a “conscious culinary community,” where consumers can support sustainability by shopping secondhand and chefs can offer cooking classes or sell cookbooks or meal plans.
Brittany is a millennial and Emma is Gen Z, and Brittany believes Kitchen Switchen is what their generations are looking for.
“We grew up going to Plato’s Closet,” Brittany Valentine said, noting the popular secondhand clothing chain. “And when I want something new and fancy, the first place I have always gone to is Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp to see if I can find a good deal on it,” she said.
“With the economy nowadays, people going into their first apartments, first homes, they want quality products but a lot of people don’t have the finances to purchase a $500 Le Creuset pot. Nobody wants to pay full price anymore,” she said.
Explosive growth for electronics resale chain
Stephen Preuss Sr. and Erik Helgesen are Founders of PayMore, an electronics resale chain that is achieving explosive growth by combining tech and online sales with an extensive physical store presence.
The pair started with a single general merchandise secondhand store on New York’s Long Island and quickly saw that electronics was their most profitable category, and that the demand for electronics resale was growing.
PayMore began franchising its stores in 2020 and now boasts 75 locations. The company has development deals in place with franchise operators for close to 600 additional store openings within five years.
“In today’s world, where everyone’s more cost-conscious and socially responsible, the pre-owned market is really going into the stratosphere and electronics is one of the most important and essential commodities in people’s lives,” Preuss said.
Technological advances are driving growth in resale, by making it easier for brands and individuals to sell secondhand and for consumers to buy, Brian Ehrig, Partner in the consumer practice at Kearney, told CO—.
“It’s really only been in recent years that these more tech-enabled platforms have come in and really helped make it easy to [unlock] all the extra things that you have in your closet,” Ehrig said.
Brands also are realizing that today’s secondhand shopper can become tomorrow’s long-term, full-price shopper, he said.
“Frequently it’s a way for people who can’t afford the new item to gain access to it,” Ehrig said. “So it’s actually a smart way to develop your customer base.”
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