The global secondhand market is on track to reach $393 billion by 2030, according to ThredUp’s 14th Annual Resale Report, based on GlobalData research and a 2026 survey of 3,268 US adults. That is nearly double the growth rate of new apparel retail, and it is reshaping how online stores write both resale and refund policies.
Figure 1: Projected global secondhand market size by 2030. Source: ThredUp 14th Annual Resale Report, GlobalData research, 2026.
The numbers below cover market size, generational adoption, individual platform growth, and where returns fit into the resale pipeline, all sourced to named reports rather than the recycled blog totals that circulate around this topic.
How big is the global recommerce market by 2030?
The global secondhand market is projected to hit $393 billion by 2030, growing about twice as fast as overall apparel retail, according to ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report (GlobalData methodology, survey of 3,268 US adults and the top 50 US fashion retailers and brands, conducted January and February 2026). In the US specifically, the secondhand apparel market is projected to reach $78.8 billion by 2030, an average annual growth rate of about 7.3%, after US secondhand sales grew 4X faster than the broader retail clothing market in 2025.
Figure 2: Global versus US projected secondhand market size, 2030. Source: ThredUp 14th Annual Resale Report, GlobalData, 2026.
The trajectory has been steady rather than sudden. ThredUp’s 2023 data put the US secondhand apparel market at $43 billion, and its 13th annual report, published in 2025, projected $74 billion by 2029. The 14th report raised that outlook to $78.8 billion by 2030, an incremental $23.3 billion of value the report says has yet to be unlocked. Report methodology and survey panels shift slightly year to year, so treat each edition’s projection as the current best estimate rather than a single unbroken series.
Which generation is driving resale growth?
Younger shoppers are doing most of the work. ThredUp’s 2026 report found that Gen Z and Millennials will drive 71% of all secondhand market growth through 2030, with new secondhand shoppers making up the vast majority of that spending. In 2025, 62% of Gen Z shopped secondhand at least once, and 58% of Gen Z shoppers, alongside 55% of Millennials, said they now prioritize secondhand over new when the option exists.
Figure 3: Share of Gen Z shoppers who bought secondhand in 2025. Source: ThredUp 14th Annual Resale Report, 2026.
That adoption is also changing how younger shoppers discover items. Nearly half of shoppers now discover secondhand items through social media, creators, and influencer feeds rather than a search bar, per the same report. This has a direct implication beyond browse behavior. It also means younger buyers arrive at a purchase already comfortable with a marketplace’s specific, often narrower, return terms rather than a big-box retailer’s standard policy.
How fast are individual resale platforms growing?
Platform-level numbers back up the category-wide trend. Vinted, the Lithuania-based apparel marketplace, reported that member gross merchandise value grew 47% year over year to 10.8 billion euros in 2025, while revenue rose 38% to 1.1 billion euros, according to the company’s own 2025 financial results released in April 2026. Vinted used that momentum to launch in New York in early 2026, targeting a US online resale opportunity that ThredUp’s 13th report had projected at $40 billion by 2029.
eBay’s own research points the same direction. The company’s 2025 Recommerce Report found that 89% of consumers expect to spend the same or more on pre-loved goods in 2025, with 42% planning to spend more outright. The report does not publish a disclosed survey sample size in the materials we reviewed, so treat the percentage figures as directional company-reported research rather than an independently audited study.
Figure 4: Recommerce market and platform milestones. Sources: ThredUp 13th and 14th Annual Resale Reports, Vinted 2025 financial results.
Scale varies widely across platforms and categories, from apparel-focused marketplaces like Vinted and ThredUp to general marketplaces like eBay and Facebook Marketplace, and category specialists like The RealReal for luxury goods. What they share is the same underlying demand curve: more listings, more buyers, and more of both arriving through mobile and social discovery rather than a dedicated shopping trip.
What is motivating consumers to buy secondhand instead of new?
Saving money remains the number one driver by a wide margin. In eBay’s 2025 Recommerce Report, 81% of consumers said saving money made them feel good about buying pre-owned, ahead of sustainability at 45%, items being unavailable new at 37%, and hunting for a unique or collectible find at 36%.
Figure 5: Top reasons consumers buy secondhand. Source: eBay 2025 Recommerce Report.
These motivations are not mutually exclusive; the survey allowed multiple answers, which is why the shares do not sum to 100%. What the ranking makes clear is that price, not identity or ideology, remains the leading reason resale keeps growing even when overall retail spending is under pressure.
How do returns feed the resale market, and what does that mean for sellers?
Returns and resale are two sides of the same pipeline. US retailers absorbed an estimated $849.9 billion in returned merchandise in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation, a figure covered in more depth in our ecommerce return rate data. A meaningful share of that inventory does not go back on the shelf at full price. A 2023 SML RFID survey of more than 500 senior apparel retail decision-makers in the US and UK found that only 47% of returned items are resold at full price, while another 42% sell at a reduced price with an average markdown of about 38%. The remainder is written off, donated, or routed to liquidation and resale channels, which is part of what is fueling recommerce platform growth on the supply side.
Processing that flow is not free, and the reverse logistics cost of every return, covered in our reverse logistics cost data, is one reason more retailers are testing resale as a recovery channel rather than a straight write-off. Some retailers also settle post-purchase disputes with store credit instead of cash, a pattern explored in our store credit versus cash refund research, which mirrors how many resale marketplaces themselves prefer credit-based refunds over cash.
For a store owner, the practical takeaway is that a resale program is only as strong as the refund policy behind it. Buyers on a secondhand marketplace already expect narrower return windows and stricter final-sale rules than a standard retailer, so a clear, plain-language refund policy protects margin on both first-sale and resale inventory. You can generate a compliant refund policy that spells out return windows, final-sale exceptions, and restocking terms before resale becomes part of your sales mix.
Recommerce by the numbers: market size comparison
| Market | Current figure | Projected by 2030 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global secondhand market | — | $393 billion | ThredUp / GlobalData, 2026 |
| US secondhand apparel | $43 billion (2023) | $78.8 billion | ThredUp / GlobalData |
| US online resale | — | $40 billion (by 2029) | ThredUp, 13th Resale Report |
| Vinted GMV (global) | 10.8 billion euros (2025) | — | Vinted, 2025 financial results |
The Bottom Line
The $393 billion projected for the global secondhand market by 2030 is not a niche forecast anymore; it is a category growing about twice as fast as new apparel retail, led by Gen Z and Millennial buyers who now treat resale as a default shopping channel rather than a fallback. Individual platforms back that up with real numbers of their own, from Vinted’s 47% GMV growth to eBay’s 89% of shoppers planning to spend the same or more on pre-loved goods in 2025. None of that growth is separate from the returns problem retailers already have. Nearly $850 billion in merchandise came back to US retailers in 2025, and less than half of it resells at full price, so the stores that write clear resale and refund terms now are the ones positioned to capture that growth instead of losing margin to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big will the global secondhand market be by 2030? The global secondhand market is projected to reach $393 billion by 2030, per ThredUp’s 14th Annual Resale Report, based on GlobalData research and a survey of 3,268 US adults conducted in early 2026. That is roughly double the growth rate of the broader apparel market.
How big is the US secondhand apparel market? The US secondhand apparel market is projected to hit $78.8 billion by 2030, growing at an average of about 7.3% a year, after outpacing broader retail clothing sales by 4X in 2025 (ThredUp/GlobalData).
Which generation buys the most secondhand? Gen Z and Millennials will drive 71% of all secondhand market growth through 2030, and 62% of Gen Z shoppers bought secondhand at least once in 2025, according to ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report.
What happens to items retailers cannot resell at full price? Only 47% of returned apparel resells at full price, and another 42% sells at a reduced price with an average markdown near 38%, according to a 2023 SML RFID survey of more than 500 US and UK apparel retail executives. The rest is written off, donated, or sent to liquidation.
Sources and References
- ThredUp. (2026). “14th Annual Resale Report.” GlobalData research, survey of 3,268 US adults and the top 50 US fashion retailers and brands, conducted January to February 2026.
- ThredUp. (2025). “13th Annual Resale Report.” GlobalData research, published March 2025.
- Vinted. (2026). “Financial Results 2025.” Official company results, published April 9, 2026.
- eBay Inc.. (2025). “2025 Recommerce Report.”
- National Retail Federation. (2025). “Consumers Expected to Return Nearly $850 Billion in Merchandise in 2025.”
- SML RFID. (2023). “State of Retail Insight Report 2023, Part 2: Returns Management and the Customer Experience.” Survey of more than 500 senior apparel retail decision-makers in the US and UK.
Note: All figures verified as of August 2026. Market size projections and platform growth figures shift with each report’s annual refresh, so headline figures here are refreshed at least twice a year.
