Recommerce revolution: reusing, reselling and renting worth almost £7bn to UK economy
Recommerce – defined as buying, selling or renting previously owned products – continues to grow, as new figures reveal consumers are opting for second hand over new and hiring pre-loved items more often than they did 12 months ago, contributing £6.99bn to the UK economy.
Barclaycard Payments, a leading payments provider, has partnered with economic impact analysts, Development Economics, to combine thousands of consumer responses with demographic data from the Office of National Statistics to calculate the value of the Recommerce Economy.
The analysis shows that the trend of shopping more sustainably has contributed £6.99bn to the UK’s economy in the last year, with Brits spending just over £5.92bn on second hand products and £1.07bn on renting items to use for a set amount of time, rather than purchasing them new.
Barclaycard Payments found that this behaviour is growing. Over four in 10 (44 %) buy more second hand items than they did a year ago, while a further 57 % say their Recommerce shopping behaviour has remained consistent, indicating this shift in the way we shop is here to stay.
The main motivator of change is the rising cost of living, with six in 10 consumers (62 %) saying this is causing them to think more carefully about the purchases they make – up 19 % year-on-year. The desire to adopt more sustainable shopping practices (43 %) as well as accessing items that would usually be financially out of reach (22 %), such as designer goods, are also key factors.
The research found that Brits make £25 a month on average from selling their unwanted processions on online marketplaces or in-person, such as at car boot or garage sales. In a sign that Recommerce is going full circle, almost a quarter (23 %) who resell items also use the funds to purchase second hand items for themselves in the same setting. Amidst the ongoing cost-of-living crunch, one in five (21 %) puts the additional income towards monthly bills and 15 % transfer it to a separate savings pot.
Fashion conscious Gen-Z leads the charge
Gen-Z adults (those aged 18-24) are particularly motivated by shopping second hand, viewing pre-loved items as ‘more fashionable’ (30 %) while also being attracted to clothes and accessories that their peers are less likely to own (31 %).
Younger millennials (aged 25-34) are the largest contributors to the overall Recommerce Economy, estimated to have spent £1.95bn on second hand items in the past year and making up over a quarter of the total (28 %). Comparatively, those in the baby boomer generation (65-74 years) account for £602m of spending (9 %).
