Dive Brief:
- The U.S. secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $78.8 billion by 2030, growing at an average annual rate of about 7.3%, according to ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report conducted by GlobalData.
- The global secondhand market is projected to reach $393 billion by 2030, double the growth of the overall apparel market.
- In 2025, the U.S. secondhand market grew nearly four times faster than the broader retail clothing market, per the report.
Dive Insight:
The secondhand market is accelerating in the U.S. and globally.
“Resale is no longer just growing, it’s taking direct market share,”James Reinhart, ThredUp co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Younger generations are participating heavily in the secondhand economy. Gen Z and millennials are expected to foster more than 70% of the market growth for the resale economy through 2030, with new shoppers making up the majority of the spend, according to the report.
Consumers aren’t limiting their search for secondhand goods to online marketplaces. ThredUp’s report found that nearly half (46%) of shoppers are finding resale products via their social media feeds, content creators and in-person browsing.
Along with shopping for used items on social media, some consumers have turned to AI tools to find secondhand goods. ThredUp’s report found that 48% of shoppers said they use AI shopping tools during their secondhand shopping journey. Nearly two-thirds (63%) said they are comfortable with agentic buying, the report noted.
“The global secondhand market is entering a more competitive, structurally complex phase,” Neil Saunders, GlobalData’s managing director and retail analyst, said in a press release. “With Gen Z and Millennials driving the vast majority of this value, the infrastructure for discovery must evolve into the social feeds where these consumers live.”
Meanwhile, other research suggests that consumers are accelerating their secondhand goods spending. During the 2025 holiday season, shoppers planned to devote about 40% of their holiday shopping budgets to used items as gifts, according to a previous survey by GlobalData and ThredUp.
A December report from Wells Fargo showed an 8.5% jump year over year in sales among “miscellaneous store retailers,” which in part is thought to be driven by the sales of secondhand goods.
“We suspect at least some of the increased traffic in this category is attributable to households seeking to blunt the impact of tariffs by buying used merchandise,” Wells Fargo economists said in the research note. “Big retailers like Patagonia and even luxury brands have launched resale programs.”
