Clothes Top Second-Hand Purchases in the U.S.

With spiraling inflation and the pandemic driving more consumers to shop online, you might have thought that second hand shopping would be pretty popular in the United States. But as data from Statista’s Consumer Insights survey shows, most Americans would still rather buy new, with nearly half of all shoppers saying that they had not bought a single second hand item in the past year.

For those that do shop second hand though, clothing is the most popular choice of purchase. As the following chart shows, nearly a third of U.S. adults have purchased at least one item of pre-owned clothing in the past 12 months. The next most popular items are accessories (22 percent) and shoes (21 percent).

U.S. adults are even less keen to buy pre-owned toys and baby products (9 percent). The same can be said for DIY and garden products (6 percent) and finally pet products (5 percent).

While the market is still fairly small, it is growing, not only in the U.S. but also in several countries in Europe.