Recommerce Heats Up as Consumers Feel Inflation’s Pinch

Ongoing inflation has led to a boom in sales for luxury resale platforms.

It has also made consumers more likely to haggle over prices to get the best deal for pre-owned clothing and accessories.

For example, one reseller, Beaux Abington, who sells products on the Etsy-owned Depop and has noticed an increase in buyers chasing deals — to the point that some of them make low-ball offers that have left her feeling “insulted.”

“There’s definitely a price-consciousness that wasn’t always there,” Abington told CNBC.

The report points to an October 2022 survey of U.K. consumers showing that 53% had turned to secondhand shopping to save money. Sellers say that’s led to intense bidding wars and more frequent negotiations.

“There’s a lot more negotiation happening,” said another Depop seller, Josefina Munroe. “Even in the last year, I’d say it’s kind of skyrocketed for me.”

PYMNTS noted the seller-centric nature of sites such as Depop earlier this year in a report on the European resale market.

“Rather than try to obscure the fact that the goods on sale have previous owners, these platforms want to highlight that fact,” PYMNTS wrote in January. “And rather than just listing the millions of items for sale, their promotional materials emphasize the ‘community’ of buyers and sellers they enact.”

Meanwhile, the past year or so has seen a number of brands launch their own resale markets, part of an evolution of the space PYMNTS’ Karen Webster forecasted early in 2022 when it became apparent inflation would surpass COVID as the dominant force in retail.

Luxury retailers would be smart to use resale “as an entry point to build the next generation of brand loyalists,” Webster wrote.

These consumers are typically part of the Gen Z and millennials generation, tend to be 80% mobile and have less disposable income, said Andy Ruben, founder of the resale service Trove, in a recent PYMNTS interview.  

“They gravitate toward the brands that are the ones that are the hardest to access,” he said. 

“So they naturally gravitate toward quality. They just aren’t often able to access that brand. And this allows brands to provide that access without degrading the quality that the brands are known for.”

And by offering those loyal customers more opportunities to interact with their chosen premium brands, the company wins a customer for life. 

“That’s where branded experiences are night and day different than finding the same item on eBay,” Ruben continued. 

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