Diver Barbie not yet unwrapped is looking for a new owner to go to the sea: at the time of digestion of New Year’s Eve, the resale of gifts is almost becoming a new Christmas tradition, even more so in times of inflation.
On the morning of December 25, some opened the oysters, others recovered from the feast of the day before and more and more French people placed advertisements online to try to resell their unwanted gifts.
“2023 was a Barbie year”
Among the products found on e-commerce sites, this Christmas Day, Barbies are making a glittering path thanks to the film dedicated to the doll from Mattel, released this year with great marketing support. “2023 was a Barbie year and it was one of the very popular gifts at Christmas, so there are a lot of announcements in this direction,” comments Louise Benzrihem, project manager for the eBay France platform, to AFP.
High-tech accessories are also popular, such as connected watches or headphones. “These are things that people can have duplicates,” she emphasizes. Without forgetting the essentials in the culture section, including the winners of the autumn literary prizes which, highly highlighted in bookstores, sometimes find themselves duplicated at the foot of the tree, when the other less awarded novels end up in the dustbin. .
“We find the best sales on our site,” notes Flora Louvet, spokesperson for the Rakuten sales site: notably the 2023 Goncourt Prize (Watch over her, by Jean-Baptiste Andrea) or the latest Asterix by Fabcaro and Conrad. The same goes for popular video games, like Harry Potter Hogwarts Legacy.
Anchored in morals
Sellers are invited to clearly specify in their ad that it is a Christmas gift, specifies Louise Benzrihem of eBay, because “this shows that the product was purchased very recently”. The resale of gifts seems in all cases to be more and more anchored in morals. According to the Rakuten website, 685,000 new ads were put online on Christmas Day at 3 p.m.
“We have an increase of 5% over one year and this growing trend is seen every year,” specifies Flora Louvet. “Because it’s becoming better and better accepted.” According to an Ipsos survey for Rakuten, 72% of respondents said they would be understanding if the gift they gave was resold. A phenomenon that is all the more important since giving second-hand products a second life is seen as an ecological gesture.
But environmental considerations do not explain everything. Inflation has weighed: On average this year, the price increase would reach 5.7%, according to the harmonized consumer price index. According to a Kantar barometer for eBay, 23% of French people plan to resell their gifts. However, those who are going to do so do it more to repay Christmas expenses (30%) than to buy something they like (29%). “Usually, the first reason given for reselling gifts was to buy something they liked. This year, for the first time, it’s all about paying off Christmas bills. The French wallets have been affected, we can see it,” explains Louise Benzrihem.
Online sales sites are not the only ones to notice the effect of inflation. Franck Mathais, spokesperson for JouéClub, says he has clearly seen the effect of the promotions, which were particularly popular with customers this year. The group, which has 284 stores in France, launched a second-hand toy buyback service in March. “The customers who brought us their toys told us that it gave them extra money for Christmas,” says Franck Mathais. Just to buy the latest doll… in the hope that it doesn’t end up at auction right away.