Sustainable Biz #8 - Magazine - Page 10
Resale rises: new Amazon research
shows pre-owned online shopping
now worth £4.3 billion a year in the UK
B
ritain’s second-hand shopping boom
has grown into a £4.3 billion economy
that’s reshaping retail, according
to new research carried out by the Centre
for Economics Business Research (CEBR)
and commissioned by Amazon.The report,
which included a survey of 10,000 adults
across Europe, reveals UK consumers saved
£5.6 billion in 2024 by choosing pre-owned
products, with three key factors fuelling this
transition: increasing cost-of-living pressures,
wider availability of pre-owned products, and
heightened consideration of environmental
10
issues among shoppers. The economic story:
second-hand growth The research by CEBR
projects this thriving online trade in secondhand goods will expand from £4.3 billion in
2024, to £4.8 billion in the UK this year.
This market, which kept more than 199
million products in UK circulation last year,
includes used products, ‘open-box’ items
(where an item has been returned unused),
and refurbished products, where a pre-owned
product is inspected, cleaned, and repaired
or had other small work done to return it to
near-new condition.
S U S TA I N A B L E B I Z M A G A Z I N E
OCTOBER 2025
“Britons are turning to
second-hand shopping
in large numbers, but
to supercharge growth,
customers must trust
buying used products
equally. ”
