Thrifty like a Rockstar OR The Resale market: what consumers want.

Before we do a post introducing everyone to swapzaar *, and why we think "eCommerce is great,

but Re-Commerce is even better" here is a post that talks about why this business trend is big and sustainable, and it's from the business that inspired us- threadflip.

A recent study conducted by Global Market Insite (GMI) shows that shopping for Vintage/ resale/pre-owned/pre-loved (no one calls them second-hand anymore, honey) items is growing in popularity across the board (men, women, young and old alike) , a part of this growth could be attributed to the media attention that is being showered on Celebs who embrace the "un-extraordinary life" through Vintage fashion and Thrifting, like regular young fashion lovers.

And while eBay is the most popular place to buys second-hand goods, garage sales and car-boot sales are popular across age groups too.
The cash-strapped young folks between 18-24 prefer to shop online for resale/second hand items mostly for the cost, convenience and variety factors.
Second had goods can be surprisingly trendy, especially now that 70s/80s/90s looks are back.
Older folks do second-hand shopping too, but the reasons they state are different, they are more likely to buy re-sale stuff if they can support a charitable cause.

Younger people pick up more clothes and fashion items, while the older folks prefer to pick up Books or Furniture etc. Women are more likely to shop for Vintage clothes, Books and jewelry while men tend to pick up DVDs, Tools, Books and so on.
Women state that they like to do it for the bargain hunting thrill, but men are a little slower to adopt second hand shopping for reasons best known to them!

Some reports state that UK consumers have over £30bn worth of clothes in their wardrobes, of
which 30 per cent haven’t been used for a year, and it is likely to be a similar figure across most
developed and developing nations, so there definitely is a lot of stuff to be sold and bought!

Overall it looks like the second hand goods market is likely to continue growing, especially since shopping has become the world's favorite pass time! The mixed motivations of finding a bargain and/or supporting a cause (a charity or fashion with a conscience) seems to be resonating with consumers.

This fantastic info-graphic reveals a lot about the preferences of second-hand goods shoppers.
(click on image to see the larger version)

* Swapzaar, of course, is our new Indian online fashion re-commerce store, and we are excited to be launching it in June this year!! We'll keep you posted on how things go...
Btw, if you are an Indian fashionista and you have amazing fashion items idling in your closet, feel free to list them on swapzaar!

Some research reports that are available for download (not the one by GMI) are linked below:

http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/study-consumer-second-hand-shopping-identify-re-use-behaviour-0

http://dominique-roux.e-monsite.com/medias/files/Roux-and-Guiot-RAM-English-edition-2008-23-4.pdf

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2135785



NOTE- This post also appeared earlier on a sister blog: