It’s not a question of if but when hundreds of millions of people all over the world make resale their new healthy habit.

Paula Sutter

Former President, Diane Von Furstenberg
& thredUP Board Member

For decades, secondhand and vintage have been the secret weapon of designers and fashion insiders. One unique find can be the inspiration for an entire design concept, collection, or runway show. Repurposing a garment or finding a unique print can be the catalyst to the creative process that ultimately ignites or re-ignites a worldwide trend.

But in the era of e-commerce, street style, and Instagram, resale is no longer a Seventh Avenue secret; the secret is out. More and more savvy shoppers, from busy moms to style seekers, are searching online resale sites in pursuit of one-of-a-kind accessories, everyday basics, and stylish clothing at big discounts. This treasure hunt is a fun, smart, and cost-effective way to create your own unique closet.

Consumers are thinking differently about how they spend their money, and they are getting more style, more confidence, and more options.

On top of it all, it feels good to shop resale. The fact that everything you buy can be re-sold only makes the opportunity more attractive and sustainable. It’s consumption without the elements that make consumers feel guilty or “conspicuous.” That is a powerful and compelling quality in an era when consumers want to do the right thing and set an example.

The secondhand industry is gaining incredible momentum. With heightened interest from consumers, investors and retailers, online resale is becoming a way of life.

Having spent the last 30 years in the fashion industry, I have seen many trends come and go. But online resale is changing the rules and creating a better experience for a new generation of consumers. So for me, it’s not a question of if but when hundreds of millions of people all over the world make resale their new healthy habit.

For decades, secondhand and vintage have been the secret weapon of designers and fashion insiders. One unique find can be the inspiration for an entire design concept, collection, or runway show. Repurposing a garment or finding a unique print can be the catalyst to the creative process that ultimately ignites or re-ignites a worldwide trend.

But in the era of e-commerce, street style, and Instagram, resale is no longer a Seventh Avenue secret; the secret is out. More and more savvy shoppers, from busy moms to style seekers, are searching online resale sites in pursuit of one-of-a-kind accessories, everyday basics, and stylish clothing at big discounts. This treasure hunt is a fun, smart, and cost-effective way to create your own unique closet.

Consumers are thinking differently about how they spend their money, and they are getting more style, more confidence, and more options.

On top of it all, it feels good to shop resale. The fact that everything you buy can be re-sold only makes the opportunity more attractive and sustainable. It’s consumption without the elements that make consumers feel guilty or “conspicuous.” That is a powerful and compelling quality in an era when consumers want to do the right thing and set an example.

The secondhand industry is gaining incredible momentum. With heightened interest from consumers, investors and retailers, online resale is becoming a way of life.

Having spent the last 30 years in the fashion industry, I have seen many trends come and go. But online resale is changing the rules and creating a better experience for a new generation of consumers. So for me, it’s not a question of if but when hundreds of millions of people all over the world make resale their new healthy habit.

— Paula Sutter
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1,142,000,000 lbs
if 1 in 100 American households
shopped resale, it would save over 1.1 billion pounds of CO2 emissions every year
that's the equivalent of planting 24 million trees per year

A Rapidly Growing Market

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$25 billion

Total resale market in 2025

This is not your grandma's thrift store anymore. High-quality resale is a multi-billion dollar industry and is among the fastest growing segments in retail. With the emergence of online and mobile players, resale is attracting consumers from all economic levels. And with resale penetration still relatively low, this should lead to outsized growth for many years to come.

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Resale Market Capture is Accelerating

Growth in the resale market is expected to outpace all e-commerce and retail sectors over the next 10 years. Furthermore, consumers who shop off-price, outlets, discounters and department stores are making resale a regular part of their wardrobes. Consider this: by some estimates, over $8 billion of clothing in American closets is unused and ignored. As the success of online resellers continues, a growing portion of this hidden treasure will be unlocked.

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In a survey conducted by thredUP this past year, 87% of individuals who bought secondhand clothing online shifted their spending away from off-price retailers. In the same survey, more than 50% of respondents reported making their first secondhand purchase online. We expect this trend to accelerate and for resale to capture wallet share from off-price retailers for many years.

Note: U.S. clothing markets only

(1) New players only. Does not include eBay or Craigslist

Capturing Share from Adjacent Markets

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The growth in online resale is fueled by wallet capture from adjacent markets such as value retail and offline thrift. Value retail, which includes off-price retailers, outlet stores, discounters, and mainstream department stores, is a $175 billion market and growing. Offline thrift is a $12 billion market today and an increasing portion of this market is moving online in search of a wider selection of brands and styles. This will prevent meaningful growth for offline thrift in the coming decade.

The Resale Market is Rapidly Consolidating

Beginning in 2009, a number of companies launched to serve the emerging resale market. As the market opportunity became clear, competitors and investors jumped into the space - pouring more than $400 million into the sector from 2009 to 2015. At one point, there were more than 30 companies vying for the attention of American consumers.

But the online resale market has consolidated rapidly as a select group of companies have accelerated away from the pack with outsized scale and business models that support profitable growth. Given the market size and long-term growth prospects, we expect there to be several winners serving distinct segments of the customer value chain.

Then

  • thredUP— AM
  • TheRealReal— AM
  • Poshmark— TM
  • Tradesy— TM
  • Portero— AM
  • Grailed— TM
  • Vaunte— TM
  • SnopSwap— AM
  • Twice— TMAcquired
  • Threadflip— AMAcquired
  • Shop-Hers— TMAcquired
  • Material World— TM
  • Vestiaire Collective— TM
  • Vinted— TM

Now

TM —Traditional Marketplace

Brings buyers and sellers together within a hosted platform to perform transactions. Often referred to as a peer-to-peer marketplace. eBay and Craigslist were pioneers in this category and still have significant market share.

AM —Augmented Marketplace

An augmented marketplace adds valuable customer-friendly activities and takes on additional parts of the value chain (logistics, photography, customer service) to deliver a more convenient customer experience. Most importantly, augmented marketplaces make it possible for more people to participate in the service.

$1,460,000,000
if 1 in 100 American households
shopped resale, they would collectively save over $1.4 billion every year
that's enough for each of those households to pay for 2 years of college
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Sentiment Toward Secondhand has Shifted

Apparel is the third major industry where “used” is becoming an integral part of the overall customer engagement strategy.

Resale is now a desirable trait, and it all started with cars. Consumers bought “used cars” until dealers and manufacturers understood the segmentation opportunity provided by “certified pre-owned.” By getting a customer into a branded, certified pre-owned car, you could build a customer for life. Electronic manufacturers have done the same thing through their “refurbishment” programs. In the past, we bought “used electronics,” now we buy “factory refurbished” phones, computers, tablets, TVs, etc. In both cars and electronics, “trade-in” is now a normal part of the product lifecycle and value proposition as brands try to maintain customer relationships and engagement.

The same thing is happening in apparel, and the smartest brands and retailers are engaging with companies in the resale space to find mutually beneficial ways to work together. In addition, overall consumer sentiment has shifted, with resale becoming a natural part of the social conversation around smart and conscientious living. We expect these to be major themes in the next few years.

The Marie Kondo Effect: A Closet’s Loss, A Consignor’s Gain

—

Thrifty Shoppers Rediscover Secondhand Fashion

—

Second-hand Clothing Gets A Second Life

—

Is The Fast Fashion Industry Ready to Change its Wasteful Ways?

—

Clothing resale sites boom as more shoppers buy with reselling in mind

—

Survey Says Drew Barrymore Most Likely Celeb to Shop Secondhand

—
thredUP, along with like-minded digital apparel resale sites such as Tradesy and Poshmark, are attempting to remake the secondhand clothes market by innovating on both sides of the consignment equation in a way that could meaningfully expand the ranks of people willing to shop and sell goods this way.

The Washington Post

Newspaper
Thrifting and online shopping are some of the best things in life.
@thestylegig
Instragram
I've always been skeptical of 'thrift' stores and websites, but I was super satisfied - it's a great way to score good deals without having to break the bank
@mysecretlookbook
Instragram
Don’t forget to always ask yourself before buying a new piece of clothing: “Will I wear it at least 30 times?”
#30Wears #SustainableFashion
@livia_firth
Instragram
99,400,000,000 gallons
if 1 in 100 American households
shopped resale, it would save over 99 billion gallons of water every year
that's about the same amount of water those same households use in a year

Faster Reuse is Good for
Retail + Resale (and the planet)

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. When customers clean out their closets, they make room to fill their closets with fresh new items. As the velocity of closet turnover increases, consumers get more use out of the clothing in the ecosystem and fewer items end up in landfills – domestically or abroad. In other words, more people share the enjoyment of every clothing item.

Did you know? 85% of all clothing that gets donated ends up in landfills. A meager 15% of what we donate ends up being recycled and most of this recycled product ends up overseas. Together, retail and resale can do more together to reduce waste.

Consumer behavior is changing and we admire retailers like Target that are innovating to adapt to today's generation. Partnerships like this provide a powerful loyalty element to a brands' customer experience.

Anthony Marino, CMO

CMO — thredUP
This is this first time a major U.S. retailer is acknowledging a real shift by high-end consumers toward value. It gives these fantastic items a true lifecycle.

Julie Wainwright

CEO — TheRealReal
in USA Today
Recycle Your Old Jeans With Us
Clean out your closet for fall, get $20 off a new pair of jeans, AND be a do-gooder? Oh, Madewell, we love you.

Glamour

Article
Worn Wear
In a more sustainable future, people will buy fewer things at higher prices, technological innovation will reduce the impact of those products’ manufacture, and the goods themselves will be made to last and then be recycled at the end of their useful lives.

The New Yorker

Editorial
Recycling Program
Creating a closed loop for textiles, in which unwanted clothes can be recycled into new ones, will not only minimize textile waste, but also significantly reduce the need for virgin resources as well as other impacts fashion has on our planet.

Karl-Johan Persson, CEO

CEO — H&M
in CBS News

Who will be next?

Mobile is Re-Fashioning Resale

The resale generation is the mobile generation. Or is it the other way around? Mobile is driving a large part of resale growth because resale is about finding that unique piece at the moment it becomes available. There is no better way to find that gem than hunting on your mobile phone when you have a moment. It’s fashion entertainment. While retail delivers 4-6 collections a year, resale delivers a new collection of product many times every day.

Today, shopping is scrolling Instagram in the back of an Uber, finding a product you like, tagging a friend to get a second opinion, and buying it right off your smartphone.
Vogue, November 2015

Resale Activity by Platform

68% of resale activity is on mobile
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Brands Winning in Resale

A brand with strong resale value is a winning consumer brand. Period.

Brands with a strong resale footprint enable customers who couldn’t otherwise afford the brand to experience it for the first time. At some point, these customers often jump to buying new. For customers accustomed to buying new, strong resale value only makes them more likely to keep buying a brand, knowing they can re-coup a portion of its cost in the resale market. Note: All data based on 2015 thredUP sales.

Top Ten

Designer Brands

Top Ten

Mainstream Brands

Top Ten

Value Brands

Biggest Movers

As online resale continues to grow, brand variety has significantly increased. Many well-known brands continue to thrive in the resale world while others have seen a huge increase in their resale popularity in the past year.

Top Ten

Established Resale Brands

Top Ten

Breakout Resale Brands

Activewear is Hot!

Everybody loves Lulu. And Athleta. And Nike. And… Activewear continues to be among the fastest moving categories in resale. Many of the best items sell within minutes of being listed online.

Top Ten

Most Popular Athletic Brands

Athletic brands inventory growth 2015

W S S F refers to Winter Spring Summer Fall

Kids Winners

Clothes don’t grow, kids do! Resale is an especially attractive category for kids clothing given how fast they outgrow the things they own.

Top Ten

Kids Brands

Here Today, Gone …

Some amazing pieces that sold as soon as they became available.

Tory Burch
Shoulder Bag
$91
Compare to: 
$295
Origin:
Hoboken, NJ
Purchased:
Spearfish, SD
7 For All Mankind
Jeans
$35
Compare to: 
$189
Origin:
Paulden, AZ
Purchased:
Novato, CA
Ted Baker London
Scarf
$22
Compare to: 
$83
Origin:
Brooklyn, NY
Purchased:
Eagleville, PA
Valentino
Rockstud Heels
$300
Compare to: 
$995
Origin:
Seattle, WA
Purchased:
San Francisco, CA
95,000,000 lbs
if 1 in 100 American households
cleaned out, it would keep 95 million pounds of clothes out of landfills every year
that's the equivalant weight of 1,500 recycling trucks

Resale is Happening Everywhere

Consumers are shopping resale across the country, from big cities to small towns, and everywhere in between. The secondhand market is rapidly expanding as it becomes more approachable, convenient and trustworthy. And at every income and fashion level there is opportunity in resale, which explains its wide appeal beyond just the most savvy style seekers.

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Most Active Resale Cities

These cities have the greatest amount of resale activity.

  • 1
    New York City, NY
  • 2
    Washington D.C.
  • 3
    Los Angeles, CA
  • 4
    San Francisco, CA
  • 5
    Boston, MA
  • 6
    Philadelphia, PA
  • 7
    Chicago, IL
  • 8
    Seattle, WA
  • 9
    Atlanta, GA
  • 10
    Houston, TX

Fastest Growing Resale Cities

Cities with the largest year-over-year increase in resale activity.

  • .
    Harrisburg, PA
  • .
    Denver, CO
  • .
    Columbus, OH
  • .
    Durham, NC
  • .
    Washington D.C.
  • .
    Hartford, CT
  • .
    Austin, TX
  • .
    New Orleans, LA
  • .
    Minneapolis, MN
  • .
    Atlanta, GA

Top Emerging Resale Cities

Resale has really taken off recently in these cities.

  • .
    Jackson, MS
  • .
    Toledo, OH
  • .
    Albuquerque, NM
  • .
    Melbourne, FL
  • .
    Salt Lake City, UT
  • .
    El Paso, TX
  • .
    Augusta, GA
  • .
    Provo, UT
  • .
    Baton Rouge, LA
  • .
    Wichita, KS

Resale in the City

Check out these five fashion-forward cities and see how they compare.

New York

Amount Spent
$3,414,377
Amount Saved
$14,467,697
Total Earnings
$1,980,001
Top Ten
Brands in
New York
Top Ten
Emerging Cities in New York
  • Floral Park
  • Troy
  • Long Beach
  • New City
  • Manhasset
  • Yorktown Hts
  • Rye
  • Long Is City
  • Bronxville
  • Chappaqua

San Francisco

Amount Spent
$1,730,159
Amount Saved
$7,588,415
Total Earnings
$709,467
Top Ten
Brands in
San Francisco
Top Ten
Emerging Cities in California
  • Carmel Valley
  • Newark
  • Saratoga
  • Carmichael
  • Windsor
  • Scotts Valley
  • Piedmont
  • Rancho Cordova
  • Aptos
  • Arcadia

Miami

Amount Spent
$538,600
Amount Saved
$2,589,421
Total Earnings
$208,402
Top Ten
Brands in
Miami
Top Ten
Emerging Cities in Florida
  • Key Biscayne
  • Satellite Beach
  • Vero Beach
  • Fleming Isle
  • Wesley Chapel
  • Palm Beach Gardens
  • Miami Beach
  • Pompano Beach
  • Windermere
  • Navarre

Chicago

Amount Spent
$1,146,553
Amount Saved
$4,817,449
Total Earnings
$412,148
Top Ten
Brands in
Chicago
Top Ten
Emerging Cities in Illinois
  • Lockport
  • Kenilworth
  • Lake Forest
  • Island Lake
  • Clarendon Hls
  • Lombard
  • Tinley Park
  • Charleston
  • Deerfield
  • Grayslake

Dallas

Amount Spent
$749,806
Amount Saved
$3,137,265
Total Earnings
$185,114
Top Ten
Brands in
Dallas
Top Ten
Emerging Cities in Texas
  • La Porte
  • Mcallen
  • Lewisville
  • League City
  • New Braunfels
  • Grapevine
  • Laredo
  • Grand Prairie
  • Lubbock
  • Friendswood
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140,000,000 items
if 1 in 100 American households
cleaned out, they would collectively generate 140 million items that could be resold or reused
that's enough fabric to create a blanket big enough to cover the island of Manhattan

The Typical American Closet: a Bad Habit

The American woman’s closet is a wildly under-utilized piece of real estate in the home. Too many women treat their closets like storage, but those embracing resale have started treating it like a revolving source of delight.

Items in the typical closet
93
Total cost
$8,500
But more than
70%
is never worn!

Looking Good Doesn’t Have to Cost a Fortune

Keeping your look fresh can be costly if you want to regularly have something new and fun to wear. By mixing resale into your shopping habits, you can save money and have fresh new outfits regularly.

The Average Yearly
Shopping List
Item Quantity Retail Price Retail Total Secondhand
Total Cost
Jeans 3 $85 $255 $153
Sweaters 2 $38 $76 $53
Shoes/Boots 3 $68 $204 $112
Activewear 3 $34 $102 $56
Outerwear 1 $80 $80 $48
Dresses 4 $49 $196 $127
Casual Tops 7 $20 $140 $98
Blouses 3 $28 $84 $59
Bottoms 3 $36 $108 $70
Handbags 1 $100 $100 $55
Accessories 3 $28 $84 $46
$1,429 $878
~61.5% savings

Your Closet is a Goldmine

There are valuable dollars locked up in your closet. By using a reliable resale platform, women can unlock a lot of that value, do something good for the planet and feel good about buying new things they love.

Opening up your closet should be like arriving at a really good party where everyone you see is someone you like.
- Amy Fine Collins

In the past the best you could do was fill up a trash bag with regrets and either haul it off to your local thrift shop, consignment store or dumpster, or give it away to family, friends or charities.

Today, full service companies like thredUP, Rent the Runway and TheRealReal offer convenient ways to simplify closet maintenance.

$297,000,000
if 1 in 100 American households
cleaned out, they could collectively generate $297 million in resale earnings every year
that's enough money to cover a year's food expenses for over 43,000 families
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2015 and the Road Ahead

More than seven years ago, I opened my closet and for the first time had nothing to wear. It was this moment in Cambridge, MA back in 2008 that the seeds for thredUP were sown. We’ve come a long way since then. This past year was a formative one for the resale industry with a number of early pioneers closing their doors or being acquired. Why? Because this is a hard business. The logistics and operational complexity to process tens of thousands (and soon hundreds of thousands) of items per day and deliver an amazing customer experience is not for the faint of heart!

But at the end of the day, businesses exist to serve the demands of customers and 2015 was a year when customers really spoke up with their wallets. They are coming to resale platforms like

thredUP in droves to find unique pieces of clothing they couldn’t find elsewhere or could not afford to buy new.

This is the most exciting part for me. It’s about providing access and opportunity to wear the brands and style that you love at affordable prices. It’s about finding those fun pieces that you would never have bought new, but are just perfect for the right occasion at the right price.

And finally, it’s about purpose. Our mission continues to be to inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand first. I have never been more confident that we’re on our way to making this a reality. Fun, fashion, and purpose is what we’re all about at thredUP and 2016 is going be another big year in resale.

More than seven years ago, I opened my closet and for the first time had nothing to wear. It was this moment in Cambridge, MA back in 2008 that the seeds for thredUP were sown. We’ve come a long way since then. This past year was a formative one for the resale industry with a number of early pioneers closing their doors or being acquired. Why? Because this is a hard business. The logistics and operational complexity to process tens of thousands (and soon hundreds of thousands) of items per day and deliver an amazing customer experience is not for the faint of heart!

But at the end of the day, businesses exist to serve the demands of customers and 2015 was a year when customers really spoke up with their wallets. They are coming to resale platforms like thredUP in droves to find unique pieces of clothing they couldn’t find elsewhere or could not afford to buy new.

This is the most exciting part for me. It’s about providing access and opportunity to wear the brands and style that you love at affordable prices. It’s about finding those fun pieces that you would never have bought new, but are just perfect for the right occasion at the right price.

And finally, it’s about purpose. Our mission continues to be to inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand first. I have never been more confident that we’re on our way to making this a reality. Fun, fashion, and purpose is what we’re all about at thredUP and 2016 is going be another big year in resale.

James Reinhart

CEO, thredUP