Fashion resale platforms typically suffer the challenges of efficiency and scale in both buying and selling pre-loved products. A suite of tech tools promise to make that easier and propel it into its next phase of evolution driven by AI and seismic policy shifts so that the global resale market reaches a projected “$350 billion by 2028”, per Duncan McKay, CEO, Aistetic.
Is Resale the next Retail?
Wearing pre-loved apparel is something to be proud of. This wide-stream acceptance has been driven by environmental consciousness and smart marketing, with influencers promoting secondhand style and reality TV show sponsorships like Love Island from Ebay broadening appeal.
AI is driving resale adoption by reducing thrift overwhelm and bridging the gap between shopping used and new. Per Thredup Report 2025, 48 percent consumers say personalisation, improved search, and discovery make shopping secondhand apparel as easy as shopping new. 78 percent of retailers have made significant investments in AI and 58 percent plan to launch AI-powered tools in the next year.
“Resale continues to outpace the broader retail sector, with online resale in particular driving the sector’s growth. Shoppers are prioritising quality as resale value becomes an increasingly important factor in purchasing decisions, and retailers are evolving their secondhand offerings to meet consumer demand with new avenues like social commerce, further driving adoption and preference for secondhand,” says Neil Saunders, Managing Director, GlobalData.
Commerce platforms such as eBay, Vestiaire Collective, and Depop are leveraging this shift in perception with platforms that facilitate effortless secondhand shopping. With no fees for listings and a concierge service for luxury fashion, sellers have streamlined listings for one-off purchases and rental platforms such as Hurr and Volte. New platforms such as Oly enable multi-marketplace automatic listings. Resellers such as Messina Hembry, Reskinned and Luv Lux focus on curating brands that they know buyers are looking for.
Authentication solutions such as Entrupy’s and product IDs have emerged in the luxury resale segment to address fraud. EON’s product passport collects, unifies and standardises product data — from raw materials and certifications to the lifecycle. This facilitates re-sale as the digital ID offers a record of the item’s ownership history and detailed condition, promoting transparency and building consumer trust.
Pickup points, low cost postage and integration into the marketplace enables providers such as inPost to offer lockers, allowing buyers to collect their parcels from a secure location whenever it’s convenient, with no risk of missed deliveries. This is also environmentally friendly as it reduces individual delivery trips and helps minimise carbon emissions.
Is Resale the next Retail?
AI-powered platforms scale resale
University of Oxford spinout, Aesthetic, applies GenAI, computer vision and deep learning to re-commerce and e-commerce fashion, building an AI-powered enriched scalable data platform that delivers conversion, channel growth and productivity.
How does this work? Customer can shop their favourite looks on social media, through the products on their feed or similar products that fit a certain aesthetic. They simply message Alma, Aesthetic’s proprietary fashion AI/ML algorithm, including videos, reels and carousels. Within seconds, they get a link to shop the look — within the Instagram browser. Users can archive the looks for a later purchase. “[Alma] allows us to learn your style but it also offers value in finding what you like and closing the gap between inspiration and purchase,” founder Northington told WWD.
“Forecasters project it will hit $350 billion by 2028”, says Duncan McKay, CEO, Aistetic on his newsletter. “Underpinning it will be AI facilitating more efficiency — digital authentication, passports and AI-powered computer vision will provide more transparency, authentication, speed and standardisation for both sellers and buyers… AI is already able to analyse any individual clothing from a single image and also analyse any buyer from simple inputs — all from a mobile device — saving time and money for the seller and taking the guesswork and uncertainty off the buyer’s shoulders.”
Partnering with pre-loved fashion reseller Messina Hembry, Aistetic’s AI-driven image recognition and cataloguing tools have optimised listings, increasing listing capacity and efficiency. “Using Aistetic’s AI Listing solution has revolutionised our workflow,” says Zac Hembry, CEO, Messina Hembry. “We’re uploading 7,000+ items weekly — AI lets us compete with speed and without the waste and cost.”
Tech start-up Truss’ catalogue API helps consumers to tap into product data from hundreds of thousands of products through a photograph, providing precise insights in seconds. Instead of searching the Internet for a match Truss searches its mammoth database of fashion items. It started out using standard AI software but struggled to identify something as the same garment if it’s on a hanger in one picture and laid out on the floor in another. With the £1 million grant it received from the UK government’s innovation agency., Truss is now building proprietary algorithms.
Trade Wars Turbocharge Resale’s Appeal
The U.S. government’s reinstatement of tariffs on Chinese imports—including fast fashion—is reshaping consumer behaviour. With the termination of the de minimis rule —which allowed duty-free imports under $800— retailers like Shein and Temu will face price hikes as a result of tariffs of up to 145 percent. 59 percent of consumers say they’ll turn to secondhand if new apparel prices rise. “All of a sudden, if ultra-fast fashion is 30 percent more expensive, resale’s value proposition becomes undeniable,” says Alon Rotem, Chief Strategy Officer at ThredUp.
The Verdict: Resale is the New Retail
Is Resale the next Retail?
Per ThredUp Resale Report 2025, the global secondhand apparel market is projected to reach $367 billion by 2029 — growing 2.7 times faster than the overall global apparel market. “As consumers are increasingly thinking secondhand first, the retail industry is adopting powerful new pathways for resale. From the integration of social commerce and innovative AI applications to the establishment of trade organisations and interfacing with government, it’s clear why resale is seeing accelerated growth and has such a promising growth trajectory,” says James Reinhart, CEO, ThredUp.
The resale industry’s future is clear:
● AI is eliminating resale’s friction points, making it faster and more profitable.
● Tariffs are pushing shoppers toward pre-loved fashion as new apparel costs soar.
● Circularity is no longer optional—it’s the backbone of fashion’s next decade.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
