The new BCG–Vestiaire Collective 2025 report shows resale now accounts for nearly a third of wardrobes, with digital product passports emerging as the market’s next frontier.
Boston Consulting Group and Vestiaire Collective have just unveiled their 2025 joint report, Resale’s Next Chapter – How Fashion and Luxury Brands Can Win in the Secondhand Market. The findings land like a wake-up call to the fashion world: resale is no passing trend, but a structural shift. In the survey of 7,800 Vestiaire Collective users underpinning the report, resale already makes up 28 percent of their wardrobes — a share that rises to 30 percent for clothing and 40 percent for handbags.
“Whether seeking desirable pre-loved fashion pieces at affordable prices or pursuing the thrill of the hunt for truly unique finds, resale is now firmly embedded in how people shop and build their wardrobes. Today, it’s a deliberate choice,” Fanny Moizant, cofounder and president of Vestiaire Collective and coauthor of the report, said in a statement.
She adds, “From the very beginning, I envisioned the future of fashion to be circular, where every item could live many lives. At Vestiaire Collective, we enable brands to embrace circularity, designing fashion with a truly infinite lifecycle, giving customers seamless resale experiences and full transparency, and enabling them to turn wardrobes into dynamic, valuable assets.”
Affordability, uniqueness, sustainability
Affordability continues to motivate consumers, with nearly 80 percent of respondents citing cost as a principal reason to buy secondhand. But the appeal extends beyond price. Roughly 55 percent strongly agree that the breadth and uniqueness of resale inventory drive them, while about half embrace the “thrill of the hunt” — the experience of searching and transacting — as a key draw.
Sustainability still matters: around 40 percent strongly agree it’s a factor. On the seller side, 66 percent say they list items as part of a wardrobe detox; 41 percent aim to make money; 44 percent to fund future resale purchases; and 18 percent to afford new firsthand items.
The report places Gen Z squarely at the vanguard of this movement. Among that cohort, resale makes up to 32 percent of wardrobes globally, surging to 66 percent in the U.S. for handbags, and reaching 45 percent in Europe. Globally, eight in 10 Gen Z respondents treat resale as a discovery channel for brands — far above the 66 percent average. In the U.S., resale is distinctly transactional: 87 percent name affordability as a motivator, 11 points higher than in Europe. Americans are also nearly four times more likely to treat resale as a part- or full-time job.
The future for digital product passports
Notably, the report turns attention to Digital Product Passports (DPPs). These data tools are emerging as pivotal to trust and transparency: 70 percent of buyers and 67 percent of sellers value authentication, while 68 percent and 64 percent, respectively, care about detailed product specifications.
Yet awareness is low: 65 percent of respondents had never heard of DPPs, and another 15 percent recognized the term but didn’t understand its meaning. Vestiaire Collective’s Catharina Martinez-Pardo frames this as an opening: “Digital product passports go beyond ticking a compliance checkbox. They are becoming a strategic tool for building trust with customers,” she says, emphasizing their ability to reduce friction, ensure authenticity, and “create new ways for brands to capture value throughout a product’s lifecycle.”
Felix Krueger, BCG managing director and partner and coauthor of the report, captures the shift with urgency: “With resale now growing three times faster than firsthand fashion and luxury, the market has gone from experimental to essential.” Brands, he warns, must treat resale not as an afterthought but as a core strategic channel.
Resale’s ascent
The timing of this report coincides with broader market data underscoring resale’s market expansion. According to GlobalData, the global resale apparel market grew 17.6 percent in 2024, reaching a valuation of $204.7 billion — far outpacing the 0.1 percent growth in mainstream apparel. Online resale alone captured 88 percent of all resale spending in 2024.
In the U.S., resale apparel expanded by 14 percent, the fastest pace since 2021, and online resale climbed 23 percent. ThredUp sees this trajectory continuing: online resale is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 13 percent, nearly doubling in five years to $40 billion. Meanwhile, analysts estimate the broader secondhand fashion market hit $190 billion in 2024, with forecasts pointing to $422 billion by 2032 (CAGR 10.5 percent).
These numbers echo earlier reporting by BCG and Vestiaire Collective, which in 2022 put the resale fashion and luxury market between $100 and $120 billion, noting it had nearly tripled since 2020. That earlier work had also projected annual growth of 20–30 percent.
Outside Europe, resale players are turning heads. Vinted, for instance, reported a sales increase of 61 percent and clinched profitability in 2024 with a net profit of €17.8 million. The RealReal, likewise, has streamlined revenue growth amid headwinds in new luxury. On a macro level, industry watchers suggest resale now comprises nine percent of total fashion sales — with a 15 percent annual jump projected for 2025.
Brands navigating this terrain face both opportunity and risk. The BCG–Vestiaire Collective report underscores that supply remains a bottleneck, especially for brands without an established resale footprint. Resistance to circular models, fears of cannibalization, and logistical complexity still deter many. But the authors argue that the long view rewards those who invest in interoperable data systems, authentication infrastructure, and resale as a customer relationship vehicle.
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