88% of users check Vinted before buying new clothes: How the second-hand platform is reshaping the fashion consumption path

88% of Vinted users check there before buying new clothes: how secondhand platforms are reshaping fashion consumption paths

Category Digital retail / cross-border e-commerce / consumer trends / platform economy

Executive Summary Vinted’s latest impact report shows that 88% of members check the platform before considering a new fashion purchase. This means secondhand fashion is no longer just a budget alternative; it is participating earlier in the consumer decision-making process, in the “discover—compare—buy” journey. For brands and retailers, the secondary market is influencing price perception, residual value expectations, customer acquisition paths, and user loyalty. For consumers, online shopping is increasingly shifting from “look at new products first” to “look first at options that can be resold, compared, and afforded.”

Event Overview

Vinted’s 2025 Impact Report offers a consumer signal worth noting: 88% of members say they check Vinted before considering a new fashion item. This is not merely evidence of growing secondhand transaction volume; it also reflects a change in the order in which consumers search for clothing.

In other words, secondhand platforms are beginning to take on a new role: they are not only places to transact, but also product discovery tools, value-comparison tools, and brand entry points. For many users, the secondary market has already become the first stop in the purchasing decision chain.

Market Background

This shift is taking place as global fashion retail faces multiple pressures at once: consumers are more price-sensitive, budget management is more cautious in an inflationary environment, online shopping decisions are becoming more fragmented, and the platform economy continues to reinforce the habit of “compare first, then place the order.”

Several figures from Vinted’s report are especially noteworthy:

• 41% of users consider an item’s future resale potential before buying from traditional retail;
• 56% of members say they take better care of their items so they can sell them to the next buyer in the future;
• The platform says €10.8 billion was directly returned to sellers in 2025;
• Users saved €21.6 billion in total versus original retail prices on adult fashion purchases;
• The platform also reports that 76% of transactions replaced a purchase that would otherwise have been new;
• Net emissions avoided in 2025 amounted to 1.607 million tonnes of CO2e.

These numbers show that secondhand fashion is no longer a marginal shift in consumer habits; it is beginning to affect retail pricing systems, demand distribution, and product lifecycle management.

Platform and Brand Impact

Impact on platforms

For recommerce platforms like Vinted, the core competitive edge is no longer just matching buyers and sellers, but entering the “front end” of consumption. When users first search for alternatives on the platform and then decide whether to buy new, the platform gains greater influence over price discovery, category preferences, and brand popularity.The platform has therefore evolved from a simple secondhand marketplace into a digital market that continuously produces “real market prices.” This pricing signal, in turn, affects brands’ new-product pricing, discount strategies, and inventory management.

Impact on Brands

What brands should pay most attention to in the report is not whether the secondhand market is growing, but that brand value is increasingly being defined in part by channels that brands cannot fully control. If consumers keep comparing similar products on the secondary market, the original retail price of a brand is no longer the only anchor.

This brings three implications:

1. Price perception is being rewritten: consumers evaluate both new and secondhand goods at the same time; 2. Resale value becomes an asset: whether a product holds its value begins to affect purchase intent; 3. Customer acquisition paths move earlier: for some consumers, the first touchpoint with a brand is not the official website or store, but a secondhand platform.

For brands that still view the secondary market merely as an extension of CSR, this shift will weaken their control over brand value and pricing authority.

Impact on Sellers

For individual sellers, the platform not only provides a way to monetize items, but also creates an internal circular consumption economy: sell first, then buy again, with funds continuing to circulate within the platform. Vinted’s report says that about half of sellers reinvest their sales proceeds into secondhand purchases on the platform, which means the platform to some extent locks in the redistribution of consumer spending.

Impact on Consumers

For consumers, secondhand fashion offers not just lower prices, but also a more flexible way to manage budgets. The platform report says that 31% of buyers use the money saved through secondhand shopping for everyday expenses such as food or energy; among groups under greater financial pressure, this share rises to 43%. At the same time, 60% of users believe this model helps them better cope with the impact of inflation on household budgets.

This shows that secondhand fashion has become linked to everyday consumption and household spending management, rather than being simply “fashion lovers buying secondhand.”

Consumer Trend Analysis

The core trend revealed by this report is that consumer purchasing logic is shifting from a linear model to a circular one.

In the past, clothing consumption was closer to a “buy-use-discard” path; now, more and more users treat products as assets with residual value. The resulting behavioral changes include:

• Before buying, first judging whether a more suitable secondhand alternative can be found;
• Paying more attention to future resale value when choosing new products;
• Being more willing to care for products in order to maintain their secondary-market price;
• Being more inclined, when budgets are tight, to prioritize options that can be resold, recycled, and bought at a lower price.This shift not only affects fashion, but may also spread to home goods, electronics, and other durable consumer products. Vinted’s report notes that 36% of members who bought fashion items last year expanded into other categories in 2025, and 17% made their first-ever transactions outside fashion. For digital commerce, this means circular consumption is moving from a single-category behavior toward a broader online shopping habit.

Regional Market Impact

North America

Consumers in North America are also facing budget pressure and greater price sensitivity, and secondhand and resale channels have already become an important complement in some categories. For brands, the key issue in North America is how to manage the relationship between discount culture and residual value expectations.

Europe

Europe is one of the more mature markets for secondhand fashion and circular consumption. As an important platform in Europe, Vinted’s data reflects how secondhand shopping has become embedded in mainstream consumer behavior. Regulatory developments in Europe and discussions around sustainable consumption will continue to push brands to pay attention to product longevity and resalability.

Asia

Asia has high mobile shopping penetration and is more platform-driven. As consumers become more sensitive to price, efficiency, and category breadth, the boundaries between secondhand, resale, and official refurbished channels may continue to blur. If brands want to maintain their pricing architecture, they need to more clearly define the positioning of new products, official channels, and circular channels.

Middle East

The e-commerce market in the Middle East is still developing rapidly, and fashion consumption is relatively sensitive to platform experience and price signals. As cross-border shopping and local platform expansion continue, secondhand and resale may first spread among groups with higher average order values and stronger brand consumption.

Latin America

In Latin America, price factors have long had a more pronounced impact on the market, and secondhand and resale models offer a practical way to improve affordability. For local consumers, these platforms are more like an entry point into brand consumption “at a lower cost.”

Africa

In some African markets, digital retail infrastructure is still being improved, but the popularity of mobile and social platforms is creating room for growth in secondhand transactions. If payment, logistics, and trust mechanisms continue to improve, circular consumption has the potential to expand in some urban markets.

Future Trends

Over the next few years, competition around global ecommerce and cross-border retail may not only take place in new-product sales, but also in secondary-market management.

Several trends are worth watching:

1. Brands will place more emphasis on residual value management Secondhand prices will affect the pricing room for new products, and brands may more frequently consider limited releases, materials, durability, and after-sales service.

2. Platforms will strengthen their value discovery capabilities Secondhand platforms are not just transaction matchmakers; they will continue to serve as a consumer entry point for price comparison.3. Circular consumption will further move into the mainstream When consumers compare secondhand and new items before purchasing, the entry order of online shopping has already changed.

4. Fulfillment and trust will become the core of competition In the marketplace economy, product descriptions, quality control, delivery speed, and return experience will directly affect conversion rates.

5. Cross-border secondhand and official brand circular channels will coexist Future digital retail competition will not only involve cross-border sales of new products, but also stratified competition among secondhand goods, refurbished products, and brand-certified resale systems.

Key Insights

• The fact that 88% “check Vinted before buying new clothes” shows that secondhand platforms have entered the front end of consumer decision-making.
• The secondary market is influencing brands’ price perception, residual value expectations, and customer acquisition paths.
• Consumers increasingly view clothing as an asset that can hold value, rather than a one-time expense.
• The growth logic of secondhand consumption is not only about sustainability, but also about budget management and value comparison.
• Future digital retail competition will extend to full-chain management where new and secondhand products operate in parallel.

Recommended Tags

#globalecommerce #crossborderretail #digitalcommerce #online shopping #consumertrends #marketplaceeconomy #ecommercelogistics #retailtechnology #digitalretail #globalmarketplaces

Relevant Markets

Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa

Related Platforms

Vinted, fashion secondhand trading platforms, official brand resale and circular channels

Source

https://fashionunited.in/news/business/consumer-behavior-shift-88-percent-check-vinted-before-new-fashion-purchases/2026052654623