The global fashion resale market has quietly become one of the strongest growth stories in retail, and the new BCG and Vestiaire Collective report maps exactly how big the opportunity now is—especially for brands that stop treating secondhand as a side project and start building real resale engines. With buyers using resale to stretch budgets and experiment with style, and regulators pushing for more transparency, secondhand is shifting from “nice to have” to non‑negotiable in fashion’s future.
The $360 Billion Secondhand Upswing
Today’s secondhand fashion and luxury market is estimated at $210 billion to $220 billion and is expected to grow to $320 billion to $360 billion by 2030, expanding at about 10% a year—roughly three times faster than the firsthand market. Nearly 28% of surveyed consumers’ wardrobes are already secondhand, climbing to 40% for handbags and 30% for clothing, proof that resale is no longer a fringe behavior.
Online multibrand platforms such as Vestiaire Collective, The RealReal, and Vinted now account for more than 55% of secondhand purchases, making digital marketplaces the primary gateway into resale. Once shoppers start buying secondhand, they typically scale the habit across categories and price tiers, using resale as a recurring way to rotate wardrobes, trade up, and monetise past purchases.
Why Shoppers Buy And Sell Secondhand
Affordability still leads: nearly 80% of respondents cite price as a key reason to buy secondhand, using resale either to access brands they could not afford new or to avoid paying full price. More than half say they prefer to buy premium labels secondhand rather than switch down to cheaper new alternatives, turning resale into a trade‑up strategy rather than a trade‑off.
On the selling side, wardrobe detox and extra income dominate, with 66% selling to clear out closets and 41% doing it to recover residual value. Another 44% reinvest what they earn straight back into secondhand purchases, creating a circular shopping loop where resale fuels more resale.
Gen Z, The US, And The New Resale Power User
Gen Z is the resale power cohort, with secondhand pieces making up to 32% of their closets—rising to 45% for handbags and 36% for clothing. Around 80% of Gen Z respondents say they discovered or bought a new brand through secondhand, well above the overall average of 66%, turning resale into a powerful top‑of‑funnel.
Regionally, US shoppers are ahead of Europe on adoption: secondhand accounts for 32% of US closets and a striking 66% of US handbags, compared with 39% for European handbags. Affordability is an even stronger driver stateside, where 87% of US respondents buy secondhand for price reasons, while European shoppers lean slightly more into curation and sustainability.
From Experiments To Structured Resale Models
For brands, the report makes it clear that resale has matured into a strategic lever, with two advanced models now leading the way. In the first, brands own the experience end‑to‑end—like Rolex with its Certified Pre‑Owned programme, Patagonia with Worn Wear, Rimowa with RECRAFTED, or Galeries Lafayette, which has embedded secondhand permanently in stores.
In the second, brands plug into resale‑as‑a‑service through partners and digital product passports, enabling one‑click relisting and smoother authentication. The Chloé and Vestiaire Collective partnership is a key example, using digital IDs to cut resale time by more than 60% while letting shoppers choose rewards in brand credit, platform credit, or donations.
Digital Product Passports And Fashion’s Next Chapter
Regulations like the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation is accelerating the shift to digital product passports, which will store standardised data on a product’s composition, sustainability, and lifecycle. Awareness is still low—65% of consumers have never heard of DPPs, and another 15% know the term but not the meaning—but once explained, shoppers see clear benefits.
Authentication and verification are the top DPP features for 70% of consumers when buying, and 79% want DPPs for handbags, where provenance and condition are critical. For brands, DPPs promise richer product data, extra customer touchpoints, stronger fraud protection, and, eventually, royalties on verified secondhand sales.
What Fashion And Luxury Brands Need To Do Now
The report urges brands to define clearly what resale is meant to do—reach aspirational shoppers, build loyalty, grow revenue, or all three—and then choose models and partners accordingly. That means integrating resale into the customer journey with minimal friction, setting deliberate pricing between firsthand and secondhand, and tailoring offers differently for aspirational versus affluent shoppers.
Most importantly, BCG positions resale and digital product passports as core infrastructure for a more circular, data‑driven fashion model, not compliance checkboxes. Brands that move early on resale capabilities, data standards, and partnerships are best placed to turn today’s $210 billion to $220 billion market into tomorrow’s most valuable growth and loyalty engine.
