Tariffs Are Pushing More Shoppers to Consider Secondhand

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The death of the global de minimis exemption has sent shippers, brands and consumers into a tailspin. One option for U.S. consumers looking to avoid higher prices? Secondhand shopping. A plethora of online and brick-and-mortar resale shops are primed to help more shoppers take advantage of plentiful, low-cost, domestic products. 

Secondhand platforms are seeing strong sales this year, and resale app downloads jumped 20% from April to July. The secondhand market offsets some of the consumer challenges caused by the tariffs. Of course, the tariffs don't apply to resellers with inventory already in the U.S., so consumers can avoid the extra fees. They may also be using resale to cut back on expenses in one category to absorb tariffs elsewhere in their budgets, or save in advance of anticipated higher prices to come. 

Secondhand shoppers are ramping up their activity

Nearly half (47%) of U.S. consumers have made a secondhand purchase recently, a number that is pretty stable over time. Tariffs promise to shift that behavior though, as about a third (34%) of people who made a secondhand purchase in the last three months said they’re shopping resale more often specifically due to tariffs. This group is likely to be regular, active secondhand shoppers, so they’re potentially amplifying an existing behavior in the face of higher prices. 

Some of the largest gains in secondhand shopping come from low-income households that don’t have much wiggle room to make ends meet, and are having to increasingly rely on resale. This can be particularly helpful for the expensive back-to-school shopping season, where roughly 1 in 10 parents said they planned to shop secondhand. 

Cost savings drive most secondhand shoppers

Everyone has a unique set of reasons for their secondhand shopping habits, but the most common is saving money: 67% of secondhand shoppers said saving money is a “major” reason they shop resale. 

Some shop for a low-cost treasure hunt, others shop resale because they have to. Consumers in low-income households are more likely to say they would prefer to buy new if they could afford it.

Gen Zers’ motivations to shop secondhand take a different shape than the average consumer. Saving money is certainly still their primary reason, but they place a higher value on sustainability (+13 percentage points versus the general population), community (+10 points) and acquiring hard-to-find items (+9 points). All these aspects speak to a mentality more geared to the rewards of a treasure hunt: Time is well spent browsing thrift shop racks and online product listings to find a needle in a haystack. 

Clothing leads secondhand market categories

Consumers turning to resale options to avoid tariff-driven inflation will benefit from growing the share of their closet that’s sourced secondhand. About two-in-three (67%) of secondhand shoppers said they’ve bought secondhand clothing. Books and games are the second most common category, with 42% of shoppers walking the used bookstore aisles. Furniture and home decor are third, with 40% of secondhand shoppers active in this category. 

Most secondhand shoppers say they spend less than $50 per item of clothing, and likely get better quality than they would if they spent that much on a new piece of apparel from a discount retailer. (Though thrift store shoppers do complain about seeing Shein items on their local store’s racks.)

Luxury apparel, home appliances and personal electronics can command higher prices on the secondary market, but are less common secondhand purchases. In the case of luxury apparel, there’s just a much smaller audience. Appliances and electronics are more purpose-driven purchases and don’t lend themselves to the thrill of the treasure hunt. Additionally, consumers are correctly wary of buying faulty electronics secondhand. 

Categories where consumers have a strong appetite for a high volume of purchases that are also likely to be shocked by tariff-led inflation — like apparel — stand to see more growth in the secondhand market in the second half of 2025 and beyond, assuming these tariffs do last that long.