‘Making second-hand mainstream starts with trust’

I suspect the leadership teams of hundreds of British retailers have had the same debate, time and again. 

We all know, as retail leaders and consumers, that we need to stand up and make positive changes to combat the climate crisis. But does this really have an impact on the way millions of our customers buy and shop every day? 

Here at eBay, the feedback from our UK consumers – all 29 million of them – has been really instructive. We know that the demand for reused and second-hand products is enormous. 

What we call ‘pre-loved’ has been one of our fastest growing categories for years; since 2018 we’ve seen a 404% increase in pre-loved sales. And with two pre-loved fashion items sold every single second in 2020, it’s helping us step closer towards achieving a more sustainable economy.

In many ways, it’s what eBay is all about – the first product we ever sold was a broken laser pointer, built out of the belief that products can still create value for consumers even when they aren’t brand-new. 

“Why aren’t there even more people buying second-hand? What’s stopping people from buying in a more sustainability-friendly way?”

In the simplest terms, our platform helps a buyer with a product they no longer have a use for to connect with a seller who’s looking for that one unique item; eBay is the right place at the right time for millions of Brits every month looking to buy and sell second-hand goods. 

The question we’ve asked ourselves is: why aren’t there even more people buying second-hand? What’s stopping people from buying in a more sustainability-friendly way? 

If we’re serious about making sustainability central to the UK retail industry, we have to look hard at the barriers that are holding consumers back and think about how we as brands can step in to encourage positive change.

For us, there’s an important barrier facing shoppers. People want to buy second-hand products – for both cost and conscience reasons – but the reason why searches for pre-loved items don’t always convert into sales is because of concerns about provenance and quality. 

They understandably worry that pre-loved products might be broken or tarnished in some way. The age-old narrative we’re told is that when you buy second-hand, you compromise on quality. That isn’t the case today.

“Tackling this concern isn’t just right for our planet, but it’s good for our customers and us as retailers”

Addressing this concern is crucial to unlocking the power of a more sustainable retail industry. Encouragingly, we are seeing brands stepping up to answer this. 

Tackling this concern isn’t just right for our planet, but it’s good for our customers and us as retailers. In all aspects of our operations we work hard to ensure our customers can trust our product and service quality; second-hand items should be no different. 

Some brands are already taking this approach and leading the industry. Asda recently announced that it is testing out second-hand clothing lines in 50 of its supermarkets, while John Lewis and Ikea are launching schemes to sell used fashion and furniture. 

We, too, have made big strides. Over a decade ago, we introduced the eBay Money Back Guarantee, a stamp of consumer protection, to help encourage consumers to buy second-hand without worrying about returns or refunds. 

But there’s more on the horizon. We’ll be introducing new checks on many popular items to give consumers peace of mind.

We’ve already started to do this. In March we launched the Certified Refurbished hub, a one-stop-shop for buying second-hand or less-than-perfect products from premium brands that have been carefully refurbished, with a full quality guarantee from eBay. 

Now we’re taking it a step further with our Authenticity Guarantee. All sales of high-end sneakers are now subject to a special vetting process, where we have teams of experts on hand to inspect the products before they’re sold. 

Later this year we’ll be going even further, introducing the Authenticity Guarantee on second-hand and pre-loved items. It will be one of the biggest boosts we’ve given to a closed-loop retail economy in our history. 

We know this only addresses one part of the challenge and there’s far more we as an industry need to do to cut carbon emissions. 

But if we start to build trust in the second-hand market, I believe this can make a real difference for our customers, our industry and, most importantly, the environment. 

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