Gone are the days when buying at your local pawn shop was reserved for the less fortunate. These days affluent millennials prefer buying pre-owned second-hand clothes instead of new pieces of clothing for various reasons.
Even high-end department stores are following this new trend of buying and selling pre-owned accessories and clothes and there is a real feeling that the second-hand clothes market is only going to get bigger.
To put things in perspective, experts predict that the second-hand clothing market will increase by 12% this year, while the regular clothing market is going to only marginally grow by less than 3% compared to last year.
Luxury Items at Half the Price
The main reason for this increase is quite simple; people are able to buy designer labelled clothes at half the price when they are pre-owned. Second-hand luxury items are usually sold at around 50% discount, but if you are lucky, you can bag a Gucci Soho disco bag or some other chic accessory with more than 60% discount.
This means that if you buy that bag directly from Gucci, you would have to pay around £815. However, you can find the same bag at prices ranging from £450 to £580, at a pre-owned clothes online vendor.
That’s quite the difference and there aren’t many places online that will leave you £300 richer after paying for an item or a service. One such place is www.novicasino.com, but that is an online casino where it is normal for players to win money. Other than that, we cannot think of any other place where your bank balance would be better off after you paid for a top quality luxury item or service.
Sustainability
Another very important factor why the pre-owned clothing market is booming is sustainability. Shoppers these days have a desire to shop more ethically and that is as large a factor towards the increase of the market as is the cheaper price.
Now more than ever, consumers are concerned about the environment and the waste they create. And clothing is definitely a big part of the waste we make. Millennials, in particular, are worried about what planet they will leave behind for future generations. This means that in addition to reducing the amount of meat they consume and carefully selecting the waste they recycle, millennials also try to reuse second-hand clothes instead of buying new ones.
This is gratifying in more ways than one as shoppers feel like they are contributing to a cleaner planet and a better future for all.
Renting Clothes
Buying second-hand clothes is almost like renting clothes. Here there is a clear chain of consumers and virtually everyone is a winner. This is because a person can buy new clothes at their original price, wear them a few times and then resell them for 70% their value. This way the first buyer doesn’t lose much money on the item and can fund his next purchase with the money he/she received.
For the second-hand buyer on the other hand, the benefits are obvious. The item is almost as good as new, at a cheaper price, and if the second-hand owner takes good care of it, he/she can continue the resale chain with similar benefits as the original buyer.
