second-hand boom
Inflation and shortages are making used goods attractive again
More and more people are buying second-hand products. Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Shopping is becoming more and more expensive, and due to delivery bottlenecks, some highly sought-after products will not be available for the foreseeable future. More and more consumers are discovering a way out: second-hand products.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a new car, a new laptop or a new outfit: shopping is often no longer fun today.
Because rising prices and delivery bottlenecks for a number of products make the shopping spree a challenge for nerves and wallets. But more and more consumers are discovering a way out: they are buying second-hand products.
«The second-hand purchase has become socially acceptable. Nobody is ashamed of it anymore – no matter how big the wallet is, »says Kai Hudetz, Managing Director of the Institute for Retail Research (IFH). According to Hudetz, three developments are currently giving the second-hand trade a tailwind: price increases, global delivery problems and the desire to live more sustainably.
«I can save money by buying used products in times of high inflation. In this way I avoid the delivery bottlenecks caused by global logistics problems, because the products are available immediately. And I act sustainably, because continued use is much more environmentally friendly than buying new goods,” says the trade expert.
Reasons for the second-hand boom
Above all, the topic of saving hits a nerve. According to a survey by the IFH, more than half of consumers are afraid that they will soon no longer be able to maintain their standard of living due to price increases. Around two-thirds of those surveyed said they wanted to reduce their spending because of price increases. “Buying second-hand textiles or electronics is a comparatively painless way of keeping the money together,” says Hudetz.
The trade expert York von Massenbach from the management consultancy Atreus is also convinced: “The current price increases and the delivery bottlenecks are boosting the business with second-hand goods as a whole.” The effects are greatest for electronic products such as laptops or smartphones. “Here, the supply bottlenecks for new goods are fueling the demand for used products so much that used smartphones have recently become noticeably more expensive.”
The boss of the online retailer Momox, which specializes primarily in trading in second-hand books and used clothing, Heiner Kroke, recently emphasized the home advantage of the second-hand industry in an interview with the “Lebensmittel Zeitung”. “We don’t have any delivery bottlenecks, our products don’t get stuck on ships in ports or in the Suez Canal.” The used products come directly from local bookcases or wardrobes to the company’s warehouse.
In fact, the now numerous online sellers of second-hand goods should not be short of supplies for the time being. According to a study carried out by the Wuppertal Institute on behalf of the city of Berlin and eBay classifieds, there are currently unused products worth almost 53 billion euros lying around in German households – goods worth around 1,300 euros per household. These are mainly clothing, books, CDs and DVDs, but also electronic devices, smartphones and tablets.
However, the used goods trade has not been entirely spared from the current turbulence. This was felt first by buyers of used cars. As determined by Deutsche Automobil-Treuhand, used car prices rose by 18 percent from 2019 to 2020 and by almost 7 percent again in 2021. According to the ADAC, the main reasons for this were the delivery bottlenecks for new cars caused by production losses as a result of the pandemic and the shortage of microchips. Many buyers have therefore switched to the used car market, and that has driven prices up.
However, according to Hudetz, such price increases in the second-hand sector will remain the exception. «Here and there there will also be price increases for second-hand products in the near future. But that mainly applies to higher-value products such as cars or laptops, where availability plays a major role.” Price increases are not to be expected across the board. “There are simply too many unused products in German households waiting to be sold.”