Topic of the week – The Rising Re-commerce Market
You may already be aware of the surge in re-commerce, but if you aren’t, it is the selling of pre-owned or used goods through online or physical stores. This is not a revolutionary new practice and in fact has been around in practice for centuries, but in today’s market re-commerce has a new meaning and has almost been rejuvenated as cultural focuses shift towards sustainability and being more economical. Rising cost of living prices are leaving people with less to spend on fancy new products or clothing items, and the popularity surge in thrifting and recycling pre-owned or pre-worn items, especially amongst younger demographics has meant that the re-commerce market has boomed over the last few years. Many companies are either capitalizing on this trend now or are experiencing an increase in customer demand, with online re-commerce companies such as Vinted, eBay or Rebuy at the forefront. The integration of these platforms within social media platforms is another great example of how sustainability and the act of repurposing used items, mainly clothing, has become trendy, with 48% of regular online shoppers buying directly through social media.
The use of C2C platforms such as Vinted has become extremely popular with at least 70% of online shoppers either buying or selling secondhand products through them in 2023. In 2023, German re-commerce company Rebuy revealed a revenue of 216 million euros, experiencing decent growth despite German online sales declining by 11.8% from 2022. Possibly one of the biggest names within the re-commerce market right now is Vinted. In 2023 Vinted launched in Denmark, expanding into a growing market within the region as the popularity of second-hand goods grows within the Nordics. Vinted has now announced its acquisition of Trendsales, Denmark’s largest second-hand marketplace in hopes of establishing a broader presence within the Danish re-commerce market.
More and more online marketplace companies are jumping on to this trend. Asos now offers a secondhand marketplace within its website as well as retailers like Zara and Superdry who are now offering pre-owned sections within physical stores offering second-hand clothing items from a range of brands. The eCommerce giant, Amazon have now announced that they will be expanding into the market, partnering with the luxury clothing resale platform, Hardly Ever Worn It, to offer pre-owned goods to customers in Europe. Although Amazon has offered second-hand items on its platform for a while, this new collaboration sees the Hardly Ever Worn It storefront integrated on to Amazon’s platform with their catalogue of second-hand luxury clothing, shoes, jewelry and watches readily available to European consumers. The fact that despite economic downturn, companies are continuing to invest in and expand in to the re-commerce market is a testament to its popularity and the opportunity for growth and potential within the sector.
In other news
A late 2023 surge in eCommerce volume has generated an impact on air freight traffic, confirmed by Seko Logistics. Seko Chief Commerce Officer, Brian Bourke, stated that the spike in traffic in the tail end of 2023 was driven by multiple factors, but the main being eCommerce volume. He also stated that the demand increase in November and December was challenging and that “If nothing changes, this year will not be different; it could actually be worse.”
eCommerce Market Stats
See some statistics relating to this week’s topics in the eCommerce market below.
Re-commerce Stats
- The re-commerce market value in the USA is predicted to reach $226.5 billion USD by 2025
- In 2022 43.6% of cross-border online marketplaces were made up of C2C marketplaces within the EU
- In 2023 the share of second-hand purchasers in the UK consisted of 62%
*Statistics sourced from EcommerceNews, Statista
That’s all for this week…
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