The Growing Appeal of Resale

This year for Earth Day, we celebrate a strong segment of the retail space which is especially earth-friendly - the resale market. The Prudent Growth portfolio includes both consignment stores (Once Upon a Child, Plato’s Closet, Chameleon Kids, Sweet Repeat) and thrift stores (Goodwill, Salvation Army, Servant’s Heart).

"What secondhand provides is not just a very sustainable and economical way to shop, but once you've bought something, it's a way to monetize it, so you can actually tap into the value of your closet and circulate," Manish Chandra, the founder and CEO of the peer-to-peer secondhand marketplace Poshmark, said. "And those economics have never been stronger than today."

"We've seen over the last decade the destigmatization of secondhand," said Alon Rotem, the chief strategy officer at ThredUp, an online thrift and consignment platform.

"There is a trend toward vintage shopping, secondhand shopping, resale thrift hauls, etc., etc., powered by social media as well as economic pressure that is driving more consumers to maybe more casually dabble in secondhand," said Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, who added that the segment's growth is thanks to "introducing new people into this market."

Secondhand has a broad appeal. Parents of young children tend to like it since their kids are growing so fast — and don't yet have strong opinions about what they wear. Lower- and middle-income consumers shop secondhand as a way to save money and get access to pricier things they perhaps couldn't afford firsthand. High-end shoppers participate, too, and often prize one-of-a-kind used and vintage items.

And in the face of escalating economic uncertainty, secondhand shopping becomes even more appealing. There are no tariffs on vintage items. If a recession does hit, more people might find themselves seeking out the lower prices — and raiding their own closets to see if there's anything of value they can put up for sale.

To read more about the resale market, please visit Business Insider.