ThredUp launched in 2009 as a peer-to-peer market for gently used kids’s garments. A decade later, it had two massive distribution facilities, partnerships with a number of designer manufacturers, and a handful of bodily areas the place buyers might peruse garments for all genders and age brackets.
Now, practically 20 years on, the web thrift retailer isn’t only a area of interest firm frequented by treasure hunters however a core participant within the clothes retail recreation.
“Resale is no longer just growing, it’s taking direct market share,” ThredUp CEOJames Reinhart stated in an announcement accompanying ThreadUp’s 2026 Resale Report. “In 2025, the U.S. secondhand market grew nearly 4X faster than the broader retail clothing market.”
The implications of that inform a troubling story about shopper sentiment and conduct.
ThredUp says secondhand procuring is important for a lot of buyers
For a lot of customers, thrift and consignment procuring has lengthy been a selection. Fairly than being pushed by financial necessity, customers have shopped secondhand out of a choice for classic kinds, concern for the surroundings, or a need for a “treasure hunt” expertise.
New knowledge from ThredUp signifies this can be altering as “cost pressure is moving resale from optional to essential.”
In 2025, 59% of customers shopped secondhand, ThreadUp’s 2026 Resale Report discovered. Virtually three-quarters (72%) of these surveyed for the report stated that rising costs are impacting their attire spending, and 27% stated they plan to extend secondhand procuring with a view to additional offset these costs.
Information from Placer.ai tells the same story.
“As economic pressure continues to reshape consumer behavior, one retail segment is accelerating through the storm,” a latest report from the situation analytics agency stated. “Thrift stores, long viewed as a niche segment, are emerging as a core apparel channel – attracting more affluent value-seekers and a younger generation of shoppers.”
Between the second quarter of 2022 and the tip of 2025, foot visitors in any respect thrift shops elevated by 25.6%, the report continued. This far outpaced visits to luxurious retailers, which grew 1.3% throughout the identical interval, and conventional retailers, which declined by 7.8%.
ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report discovered that secondhand procuring is rising at two instances the speed of conventional retail.
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The profile of secondhand buyers is evolving
The worldwide secondhand market has turn into a $393 billion business, representing roughly 10% of whole attire spend, ThredUp experiences.
That quantity is simply anticipated to develop over the following few years, and the profile of the patrons driving that progress is stunning.
“The global secondhand market is entering a more competitive, structurally complex phase. We expect the U.S. market alone to reach $78.8 billion by 2030,” GlobalData’s Managing Director and Retail Analyst Neil Saunders stated in an announcement. “Gen Z and Millennials [are driving] the vast majority of this value.”
In 2025, 58% of Gen Zers and 55% of millennials prioritized shopping for secondhand over shopping for new, and a whopping 62% of Gen Zers made no less than one secondhand buy over the course of the 12 months.
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This affinity for lower-priced attire may be attributed, no less than partly, to the generations’ tight monetary place.
Amongst these generations, 7 out of 10 individuals really feel that wealth is out of attain and survival spending has turn into the norm, in keeping with a 2026 survey carried out by Past Finance and Operation Hope.
Moreover, 32% of the survey respondents say they’ve used “buy now, pay later” platforms for necessities like groceries and utilities, and 1 in 3 understand themselves as “barely surviving” financially.
With budgets stretched that skinny, it’s no shock that thrift and consignment procuring has turn into such a well-liked technique to fill closets.
However budget-conscious buyers aren’t the one individuals using thrift shops. The median family earnings of secondhand buyers has elevated considerably over the previous 4 years, in keeping with Placer.ai, going from $74,900 in 2022 to $75,700 in 2025.
Thrift shops are additionally more and more popping up in prosperous neighborhoods, and the distinction between the retailer’s potential market and captured market is starting to flatten out.
This appears to point that it’s not simply younger, and low-income earners which are feeling the pinch, however customers throughout all earnings and age brackets.
Reselling has turn into a supply of earnings
Millennials and Gen Zers aren’t simply utilizing secondhand procuring to fill their closets, they’re additionally turning to the observe to empty them.
In mild of their strained monetary positions, a rising variety of Gen Zers and millennials see their closets as an asset.
“Online resale activity is increasing, particularly among younger, digitally savvy consumers,” Placer.ai’s report stated. “As economic uncertainty persists, many are turning thrifting into a side hustle, leveraging low-cost sourcing and online platforms to generate income.”
Greater than half of resellers promote their undesirable clothes gadgets for the extra earnings, ThredUp says. The pattern is especially sturdy amongst Gen Zers, who’re 10% extra prone to monetize their wardrobes.
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As reselling as a aspect hustle continues to develop, it would have a big affect on the attire market as a complete.
In truth, 49% of millennials and Gen Zers instructed ThredUp they’ve already stopped buying low-quality attire as a result of it might’t be resold.
“We’re moving from a linear apparel economy toward a resale flywheel, where consumers increasingly buy with future value in mind,” Reinhart stated in ThredUp’s report.
Whereas this “resale flywheel” has acted as a safeguard towards inflation for patrons and sellers, its speedy acceleration highlights a worrisome reality concerning the present state of the economic system. Thrifting is not only a enjoyable weekend interest, however a obligatory survival tactic for an American shopper base that’s more and more being priced out of the normal retail market.
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