Used clothing has traditionally been associated with a more sustainable consumption model or with certain groups that bet on second hand as a form of environmental activism against highly polluting textile industry models such as fast

fashion

.

But

the inflationary crisis has turned around consumption habits in Spain

in all fields.

Not only in the supermarket, where the increase in food prices has modified the content of the shopping cart to adapt it to the diminished purchasing power of the middle-class pocket, but also in the textile trade, where the lack of life is pushing consumers towards buying clothing at thrift stores.

An option that is not only cheaper, but also more sustainable, which is booming and is gaining followers even among giants in the sector such as

Inditex

.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the inflationary escalation translated into an increase in prices of 8.4% in 2022 and began this year at 5.9%.

The fashion sector, for its part, accelerated its particular rise at the start of 2023 with a

3.6% increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the clothing and footwear section.

Although the inflation rate there decreased by 11.5% in January compared to the previous month, as usually happens in the first month of the year due to the effect of sales, Statistics pointed to clothing as one of the groups that stands out for its influence in the increase in the annual rate of the general CPI.

Shopping is becoming more expensive and

consumers are beginning to explore more affordable options to revamp their wardrobes.

This trend is corroborated by the data from

the Humana Fundación Pueblo para Pueblo

, the non-profit entity that sells clothing from donations deposited in the containers on public roads with the social purpose of promoting development cooperation projects in countries of the South and social actions here in Spain.

In 2022, Humana recorded

a 22% increase in customers

at its 48 stores, exceeding 2 million shoppers for the first time.

Specifically, 2.4 million were reached, who purchased a total of 6.2 million reused items.

Upward trend

"The sale of second-hand clothing has been on the rise

for a few years," explains Rafael Mas, director of Projects and External Relations of the Foundation, who stresses that the sector was already on the ascendant line before the pandemic, but in 2021 experienced a turning point.

"Not only did he recover well from the effects of confinement, but those good feelings were confirmed in 2022," he says.

The reasons behind this positive evolution of the business are, in his opinion, "the consumption boom, a change in values ​​driven by greater environmental awareness and the gradual rediscovery of other ways of consuming", to which he adds that "

the Good prices for this type of product act as another important factor"

That second-hand clothes are finding their way into the closets of the Spanish, driven by the high cost of living, is a fact.

However, experts point to other elements that are driving the rise of this market among certain segments of the population, especially among young people.

"Obviously, when life is more expensive, consumers opt for cheaper options," introduces what are known as "inferior goods" -those whose demand increases when income falls- Tomás Gómez, professor of Business Administration and Management

at

the International University of Valencia (UIV), which recalls the strong increase that occurred in the 2008 crisis in sales of chicken meat, considered an inferior good.

Beyond this theoretical approach based on the price crisis, the professor points to another of the main factors that is driving used clothing sales: there is increasing awareness of responsible, sustainable and circular consumption in the face of an industry,

such

as it is textiles, which leaves a large carbon footprint.

And the institutions are in that line, since the Green Pact of the European Union establishes that by 2050 companies must have transformed their production model towards zero emissions.

"That is in less than 30 years and the trend is going to mark the new consumption habits in Spain", emphasizes Professor Gómez.

'Zara Pre-Owned'.

The industry is making a huge effort to direct its production towards more sustainable models in all phases of the process, from product design to store management, through manufacturing and logistics.

And no company wants to be left behind in the race to position itself in a market that is currently dominated by the large specialized e-commerce operators.

This is the case of

Inditex

, which has already been working on launching its second-hand business with Zara in some of its main markets after testing it in the United Kingdom.

Through the

'Zara Pre-Owned'

platform , the group founded by Amancio Ortega offers the possibility of repairing, selling or donating used garments, as long as they are from Zara, both online and in a physical store.

From the company, they point out to ACTUALIDAD ECONÓMICA that the expansion strategy in the second-hand market involves taking Pre-Owned to "more core markets" of Inditex in Europe, without specifying which ones, for the moment, although it is taken for granted that Spain will be one of them.

However, they add that the new platform constitutes "one more leg of a project to extend the life of the product", and in no case has it been proposed to compete with e-commerce operators

.

Vinted, in the lead

Micolet, Etsy, Wallapop or Milanuncios itself

are some of the most popular used clothing buying and selling applications.

In the lead,

Vinted

, the Lithuanian company that was born from a woman's need to get rid of the excess clothes she had in her closet and that has reached a valuation of up to 3,500 million euros after establishing itself as the largest buying and selling application of reused clothing at a European level.

But in the competitive

second hand

market there is room for multiple players, such as

Zalando

, which also has a specific section in its application.

The German company certifies the strong growth in this business segment in which it acts as an intermediary between individuals, guaranteeing quality standards throughout the entire buying and selling process.

And there is also room for traditional textile companies, which have been experimenting for years with circular alternatives to the accelerated and polluting consumption model.

Before Zara,

H&M

developed its own platform (Sellpy), which already works in around twenty countries, including Spain.

Springfield, from the Tendam group

, is running a pilot project to sell its used clothing on Percentil, a platform that also works with

C&A

.

The trend, accelerated by an inflation crisis that has pushed textile consumers to the refuge of second-hand, is here to stay.

From Humana, Rafael Mas insists that "it is not a passing fad but that reuse and second hand, as paradigms of sustainability and the circular economy, will be maintained over time."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Inflation

  • Inditex Group

  • zara