• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

By now, resale and thrifting have become such ingrained shopping behaviors that ThredUp's just-released annual report reads less like a trend story and more like a market-structure analysis. Income brackets mean less than they used to; affluent young resale enthusiasts are buying $45,000 handbags, while financially stretched fans are scooping up $5 sweaters.

But as consumer wallets tighten, ThredUp's 14th annual report uncovers trends that should matter to every apparel marketer. The U.S. resale market is growing four times faster than broader retail. Globally, the secondhand market has reached $393 billion, accounting for 10% of all apparel sales.

"Resale is no longer just growing, it's taking direct market share," writes James Reinhart, ThredUp cofounder and CEO. "The next phase of this market will be defined by who can best unlock supply and use AI to connect that inventory with the next generation of shoppers."

Millennials and Gen Z drive 71% of that growth, but the resale habit is spreading across all generations. The report, which draws on a survey of more than 3,200 U.S. consumers combined with insights from 50 top fashion brands, points to several structural shifts worth watching.

Discovery has moved off-platform. Nearly half of shoppers now find their next secondhand purchase through social feeds and creators, not on reseller platforms like ThredUp or The RealReal. AI is accelerating that shift, making the process of listing, pricing and finding inventory faster and more scalable for both buyers and sellers.

Resale's popularity, though, underscores a stubborn structural problem: In many categories, there are more buyers than sellers. Unlocking supply — making it easier and faster for people to sell — is now the primary growth constraint, not demand.

Perhaps the most consequential finding for brands? Resale is becoming a financial behavior, not just a shopping preference. Consumers are using it to generate income and fund new purchases, cycling value through their closets rather than treating any purchase as a one-time transaction. That flywheel is strengthening — and most brands, the report notes, recognize the shift but lack the infrastructure to participate meaningfully at scale.