‘Re-commerce’ is Remaking Retail

AMERICANS ARE SCOOPING UP secondhand items at a record pace, thanks to a surge in digital resale platforms like Poshmark, Depop, thredUP and The RealReal. Now more traditional retailers want in on the action.

This year alone, Americans will spend almost $179 billion on secondhand goods, up 96 percent from 2015, according to research from Mercari and GlobalData. By 2030, those firms contend, that number will nearly double to $354 billion—a growth rate 3.2 times that of the retail sector as a whole. And it’s not just a small segment driving the pre-used market: Three quarters of us, the Mercari/GlobalData research shows, bought at least one secondhand item last year.

Those numbers