Every second consumers turn to used products instead of buying new ones.
Already more than 40 percent of Poles use used books or clothes, and almost 60 percent – cars. Second-hand items are no longer a shame, but sometimes downright pride. Fashion develops, among others thanks to the use of online platforms. More and more consumers prefer to fix things they already have rather than throw them away and buy new ones.
Today, second-hand goods are – not surprisingly – cars, because the price criterion is important. But pointing to more than 40 percent. of studied books or clothes is no longer so obvious. It is a derivative of both lower prices and – more and more often – reluctance to fast and cheap fashion in retail chains. Therefore, especially the young generations are more and more willing to reach for used products. For them, what matters is not having the item, but using it and returning it.
Almost 67% of respondents buy used goods on websites, thanks to which the market will continue to grow faster as a in-depth B2C market research in Poland shows. This can be seen even in Allegro, whose beginnings and subsequent years of operation are offers mainly from individual customers who also display many used products. Later on, the OLX service and many others appeared.
Currently used items account for approximately 10 percent of the 120 million listings available on the platform each month. However, there are categories where their high share still remains. These are, for example, books where a third of the offers are used up, many of them are no longer reissued and can only be purchased from secondary circulation.
The domestic used clothing market is estimated at PLN 5-6 billion annually. More than 10 million adult Poles already dress in second-hand stores. The number of operating stores is almost 30 thousand. In addition, thousands of used cars change hands every year, as well as many other products, from furniture to tools and electronics.
