BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Put the once-worn summer dress on the online platform Vinted and then search at Zalando for the long-awaited sneakers, used of course. Especially in clothing, the market with second-hand goods continues to grow significantly. The consulting firm PwC assumes "that the volume of the second-hand fashion market in Germany will increase from around 3.5 billion euros in 2022 to five to six billion euros by 2025," as it announced on Thursday.

For the entire market with used goods, the German Trade Association already predicted in May a growth of eight percent to around 15 billion euros for the current year. For comparison: in 2019, sales of second-hand goods were still at 10.6 billion euros. The second-hand goods segment is thus growing faster than the retail sector as a whole, it was said at the time.

The data also coincides with a current, albeit not representative, PwC survey of around 500 respondents on second-hand clothing. According to the survey, more than half of the respondents (56 percent) have already bought used adult fashion, and another 14 percent are considering doing so. According to the survey, the most important driver is online retail. More than half of the respondents have already bought worn clothing on Internet portals such as Vinted or classified ads.

A representative survey by the HDE came to similar conclusions with regard to the entire second-hand market, which also includes electronics, books and other products. A good half of consumers stated that they had already bought second-hand goods. Many intend to do so more frequently in the future.

In addition to price, the environment is also playing an increasingly important role for consumers. This is also shown by surveys conducted by the environmental organization Greenpeace. Last year, more than one in three respondents said they specifically buy clothing "whose production places value on sustainability, environmental compatibility and/or fair working conditions," according to the representative survey, which Greenpeace published back in July of last year. In 2015, only one in four respondents answered accordingly.

Despite this change in awareness and the accompanying growth in the market for secondhand clothing, the fashion market is still a long way from sustainability. For one thing, according to HDE, second-hand goods still only account for two percent of total sales. The share is also likely to remain low for textiles. For another, in addition to selling and buying clothes that have already been worn, other adjusting screws are needed to change the fashion market.

"We need to move toward more lending and exchange models," says Greenpeace expert Viola Wohlgemuth, for example. Too little is happening here, she says, especially on Internet portals. "The goal must be that only 40 percent of clothing on the market is produced and bought new, and 60 percent is covered by alternatives. This includes secondhand, but especially alternative business models to buying, such as renting, sharing and repairing clothes."

Large fashion portals in particular now also offer a secondhand section, Wohlgemuth says. In addition, however, they continued to demand so-called fast fashion, i.e. cheap plastic clothing that is usually rarely worn and quickly discarded and repurchased. "If secondhand doesn't reduce new purchases, then it just doesn't change the entire market," the activist emphasizes.

In addition: In recent years, large Chinese Internet companies have also gained a foothold in the German market with fast fashion. Shein or Temu sold "the new ultra-cheap clothing in Germany in tons" primarily to young people, Wohlgemuth says - bypassing parents and supervisory authorities who could do little because the portals did not maintain stores in Germany. Only a stricter supply chain law and more concrete textile legislation from the German government would help here, he says, in order to also translate the EU textile strategy into effective law./maa/DP/ngu