eCommerce: Secondhand Marketplaces

ReCommerce in Europe: Key Insights

• eBay on Top, Vinted Follows: With more than US$30 billion GMV in 2023, eBay is Europe's go-to platform for secondhand sales. Competitor Vinted has improved its position in recent years.

• Product Category Focus: ReCommerce marketplaces typically operate with a focus on specific categories. Notable platforms include Vestiaire Collective and Depop for fashion, Ruby Lane and 1stDibs for antiques, and Back Market and Refurbed for electronics.

• ReCommerce Online Stores: Another business model involves the resale of used products that platforms have purchased after quality control. European examples include Momox and ReBuy.

In recent years, and further driven by the pandemic, eCommerce marketplaces offering secondhand goods have witnessed a surge in worldwide popularity. Several factors are responsible for this development: The widespread movement towards eco-friendly consumption certainly contributes to the success of secondhand initiatives, as are online shoppers looking for a bargain on pre-owned products. 

The concept of reCommerce is not new: ECDB already covered comprehensive analyses on secondhand fashion in the UK and reCommerce in the U.S. But what about the European continent as a whole? 

With homegrown secondhand platforms like Vinted proliferating on a large scale, what exactly does the eCommerce market for secondhand sales in Europe look like?

Generalist Marketplaces: A Wide Assortment

Probably the best known, as well as one of the oldest online auction sites, is eBay. Despite receding marketplace activity (measured in GMV), the U.S.-based company was still the undisputed leader of secondhand eCommerce platforms in 2023. Its US$30.6 billion in GMV on the European market supports this notion:

But a European competitor is threatening to challenge eBay’s dominance in the foreseeable future: Vinted. The Lithuanian company managed to maintain positive growth over the past years, exceeding US$1 billion in GMV by 2019 to approach US$9 billion just four years later, in 2023. See the specifics in the dedicated chart:

Note that Vinted’s 2023 GMV is different here from the previous chart, which focused on Vinted’s GMV in Europe. This one here shows Vinted’s global GMV, where a small share is also generated in the U.S. By 2024, ECDB analysts expect Vinted to increase its GMV by a little more than one quarter (25.6%) annually, reaching US$11.1 billion.

What explains Vinted’s steep ascension over the past few years? Clearly, the pandemic was a common occasion for many to declutter their wardrobes and shelves, leading to a surge in sellers and increasing demand. But after the pandemic, Vinted’s marketplace activity continued to accelerate.

One of the reasons for Vinted’s success can be found in the site’s social networking aspects. Users can come into contact with each other, share styling tips and discuss prices of offered products. The platform makes money by charging buyers a fee for each item purchased, and in turn it provides buyer protection and returns for products that are different from their description on the platform.

Fashion Marketplaces: Offering Environmentally Conscious Styles

For fashion enthusiasts, platforms like Vestiaire Collective and Depop are reshaping the way we think about used clothing. While overall, fashion is an obvious category for secondhand, and one of the major categories sold on the previously introduced platforms, Vinted and eBay, Vestiaire Collective and Depop exclusively sell pre-owned fashion. Vestiare Collective generated a GMV of US$168 million in Europe in 2023, while Depop generated US$315 million. 

Vestiaire Collective offers a curated selection of high-end pre-owned fashion items, while ensuring authenticity and quality. Depop, popular among the younger crowd, serves as a hybrid of a social media platform and a sales outlet, where users can follow popular sellers and trends.

Antique and Collectible Marketplaces: Ruby Lane and 1stDibs

For collectors of antique products and vintage accessories or furniture, although the demand for these products is not as mainstream as for fashion, there are still dedicated marketplaces connecting sellers and buyers with one another. 

Two typical eCommerce marketplaces for antique products are Ruby Lane and 1stDibs. Responding to the more niche character of the product assortment itself, GMV for Ruby Lane and 1stDibs is a little lower than what the other platforms generate. In Europe, products worth US$5.2 million were sold on Ruby Lane in 2023, while it was around US$76 million on 1stDibs. 

Especially noteworthy are the safeguards implemented by these platforms to ensure that antique sellers and stores offering the products are certified and that the catalog encompasses authentically vintage pieces.

Security measures for buyer protection and to ensure products are functioning are also important for the next product category.

Electronics & Media Marketplaces: Selling Refurbished Items

Two factors contribute to the popularity of reCommerce for electronics: The demand for affordable technology and the growing disapproval of electronic waste for products that are still good to use. However, the underlying business structure varies. 

For instance, Back Market, a leading electronics marketplace with a 2023 GMV of over US$1.6 billion in Europe, operates as follows: Back Market manages a network of repair shops across its target markets, where sellers send their used products. After refurbishment, products are offered to customers and eventually resold. Basically, Back Market provides the intermediary platform for repair shops to offer the electronics to consumers. 

Other marketplaces, like Refurbed with a European GMV of US$618 million in 2023, use the same business model of connecting refurbishment companies with consumers. In this way, the marketplace provider (in this case Refurbed) saves warehousing costs and can ensure a more seamless forwarding of products, which reach customers directly from repair stores. 

But there is also the case in which online retailers buy the products before forwarding them to consumers. Let’s have a look.

Online Stores Selling Used Electronics & Media

Instead of a marketplace model whereby platforms act as intermediaries, there is also the option to buy used products and re-sell them. 

Popular European providers selling electronics and media this way are Momox and reBuy reCommerce.

Both platforms managed to overcome the post-pandemic slump in net sales rather quickly. 

Nevertheless, there is a distinction between these platforms, not in the least marked by varying net sales. Momox sells a wider range of products and reBuy reCommerce focuses on media like books, video games, CDs and DVDs. Visible on Momox’ respective ECDB Store Page, more than one third of its assortment consists of media products (78.4%), while the rest is fashion products with 21.6%. 

Resellers conduct quality control upon receiving products. Unlike platforms that connect buyers and sellers, retailers such as Momox act directly as the seller.

ReCommerce in Europe: Closing Thoughts

Whatever the business model looks like, sustainability initiatives establishing a circular economy are on the rise. With increasing success of incumbents, new platforms with similar or adapted strategies will follow, further contributing to this burgeoning market.

Sources: Business Adobe – EU-Startups – Reboundstuff – Redbull – Vogue