Photo: Money Crashers
Clever consumers have paved the way to dodge soaring inflation somehow to keep purchasing more than necessities.
They’re doing it through shopping for their closets, households, outdoor space, home offices, and workout areas from each other instead of from retailers.
Giant chains like Walmart, Target, and Bed Bath & Beyond are tumbling with an oversupply of merchandise and insufficient demand for pieces like furniture, electronics, home décor, and clothing.
However, those categories are in coveted demand in the secondhand marketplace, per the fourth yearly industry report from OfferUp, a major online resale marketplace.
“While recommerce has become popular in culture with its use for clothing resale, our research found that 76% of items bought and sold pre-owned are not apparel and instead fall into the categories of electronics, furniture, home goods, home improvement, sporting goods, outdoor equipment, and auto parts,” said Todd Dunlap, CEO at OfferUp, in the report.
Demand for secondhand clothes and other items was firm during the time of the pandemic as environmental-conscious and budget-managing millennial and Gen Z shoppers generated resale interest.
The pandemic became an addition to the strong momentum, and sky-high inflation has enlivened it.
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The Marketplace Dominated by Secondhand Items
The report, conducted with analytics company GlobalData, discovered that 83% of Americans, at least 272 million individuals, are now purchasing and selling secondhand products. In addition, a considerable number of those consumers stated that inflation affected their decision to plunge into the secondhand market, with a motivation of saving or making money.
“Inflation is more helpful than harmful for resale as it drives the market for both buyers and sellers,” stated GlobalData Retail’s retail analyst and managing director Neil Saunders.
“On the buyer front, more people are turning to secondhand as a way to save money when prices are high. And more people are selling their used goods to make a bit of extra money,” he stated. “So, inflation is widening the number of people involved in the resale market and expanding the number of items available.”
Those who enter the marketplace and are active are allocating around 27 minutes per day on resale sites, nearly as long as the 30 minutes they spend on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.
“We interviewed a representative set of Americans and found that they don’t plan on slowing down,” Dunlap stated. “In fact, more than half (58%) of Americans who engage in recommerce plan to increase their buying and/or selling of pre-owned goods in the next 12 months.”
OfferUp forecasts the resale market to gain $178 billion in sales in 2022, higher than the $160 billion from the previous year and $289 billion in sales by 2027.
The report is established on research from GlobalData and a survey of 2,000 Us citizens performed in May 2022.
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