The Event: UK Emerges as World Leader in Second-Hand Shopping
According to eBay’s fifth annual Recommerce Report, British consumers have become the most active second-hand shoppers globally. The report draws upon a broad survey of 27,000 consumers and eBay sellers across multiple markets and finds that 46% of UK shoppers purchase pre-loved items at least once per month— a figure unmatched by any other country. The data signals an ongoing shift in consumer habits: 92% of surveyed UK participants expect to maintain or increase their spending on second-hand goods over the next year. This trend, once considered niche, now commands mainstream attention and is structurally altering the UK retail landscape.
The movement is driven predominantly by economic factors. With continued pressure from the rising cost of living, affordability remains the top motivator, cited by 79% of respondents. However, sustainability considerations follow closely: 47% of British second-hand shoppers are motivated by environmental benefits. Fashion dominates as the leading category, with 72% of UK shoppers buying second-hand clothing, but recommerce has also become significant in technology, with over a third of consumers acquiring pre-loved tech products, often at savings of up to 50%. Books and homeware also rank among the most popular categories.
Significance for E-commerce and Content Infrastructure
The rapid adoption of recommerce models in the UK is having a profound impact on multiple layers of e-commerce infrastructure, especially around product data management, content pipelines, and scaling marketplace operations.
Influence on Product Feeds
The volume and diversity of second-hand listings necessitate robust product feed strategies. Unlike new goods—which have standardized SKUs, well-established manufacturer descriptions, and uniform image sets—second-hand goods require custom descriptions, frequently unique photos, and condition disclosures. This creates challenges for automated feed generation:
- Product feeds must accommodate unstructured data and variable attribute completeness.
- Real-time ingestion and updating of listings are critical, given the high turnover in pre-loved inventory.
- Automated quality checks are needed to ensure feed hygiene, as inaccuracies or gaps in data can significantly degrade shopper trust and conversion.
Cataloguing Standards Evolution
Second-hand commerce accelerates the evolution of cataloguing standards. Comprehensive and adaptive taxonomies are essential to classify a broad spectrum of items, many of which may be discontinued, rare, or customized.
- Condition grading systems (e.g., “like new,” “good,” “acceptable”) require codification and standardization to enable meaningful filtering and comparison.
- There is increasing demand for flexible metadata structures that can adapt to unconventional or out-of-market products—vintage items, out-of-warranty tech, or upcycled goods.
- GS1 and similar industry standards are being reconsidered or supplanted in certain categories where traditional identifiers do not apply.
Quality and Completeness of Product Cards
The surge in recommerce directly tests the quality and completeness of product detail pages (PDPs). For second-hand items, buyers rely more heavily on rich, accurate, and trustworthy content because physical viewing is impossible.
- High-resolution, multi-angle photography and user-generated content are now baseline expectations.
- Rich text descriptions, authenticity verification, detailed provenance, and condition disclosures are prioritized.
- Buyer protection schemes and authentic user reviews are essential PDP elements to reassure buyers and drive conversions.
eBay and leading marketplaces are investing in user-friendly tools, including AI-powered image recognition and template-driven listing workflows, to assist sellers in creating comprehensive and trustworthy product cards without specialist knowledge. Enhanced AI-driven QA processes help automate the detection of prohibited items, misleading descriptions, or category mismatches.
Speed to Market and Assortment Expansion
One of the competitive advantages in recommerce is the ability to launch or rotate new inventory rapidly. The fluid nature of second-hand goods means assortment is highly dynamic—requiring marketplaces to streamline onboarding and listing approval cycles.
- No-code platforms facilitate rapid listing creation, enabling casual sellers and small businesses to start selling instantly without technical expertise.
- Automated moderation powered by machine learning minimizes manual bottlenecks, accelerating time to live on the site.
- Bulk-lister tools and API integration allow high-volume sellers to maintain and update catalogs efficiently, keeping pace with inventory churn.
No-code, AI, and Automation as Key Enablers
The second-hand market has become a proving ground for no-code platforms and AI solutions. A substantial proportion of eBay’s recent product improvements focus on lowering barriers for both individual sellers and professional resellers.
- AI-driven image classification helps automatically assign categories, assess item condition, and generate descriptive content.
- No-code interfaces empower non-technical sellers to produce compliant, high-quality listings with minimal effort.
- Automation in price recommendation, fraud detection, and inventory alerts enhances operational efficiency, reduces risk, and maintains marketplace integrity.
In March 2025, eBay UK reported processing over eight million transactions with average order values ranging from £75 to £100—reflecting not only the breadth but also the economic significance of the sector. Recommerce now accounts for approximately 40% of eBay’s gross merchandise volume globally, underscoring its strategic weight.
Broader Trends: Consumer Behavior Shifts and Marketplace Dynamics
The eBay data aligns with recent national and global consumer studies, which indicate a sustained and growing embrace of the circular economy. Around 89% of global consumers expect to maintain or increase their spending on pre-loved goods into 2025, with nearly 80% of Gen Z and Millennials identifying as part of this movement. For these cohorts, value, sustainability, and digital fluency converge to make recommerce not just an economic choice, but a statement of identity and purpose.
The UK, now firmly established as the global leader in second-hand shopping, stands at the center of platform innovation. eBay’s expanding investment in AI-powered listing and buying experiences is matched only by peer-to-peer models, which emphasize community, curation, and seamless onboarding. According to TheIndustry.fashion, UK demand for pre-loved fashion continues to set the global standard, with technology and homeware following closely behind.
Marketplace competition, once defined by price and convenience in new goods, is increasingly focused on trust, transparency, and the ability to surface relevant, high-quality second-hand inventory fast. As the boundaries between professional resellers and consumer sellers blur, the demand for agile, scalable content and catalogue solutions will only intensify.
Implications for the Industry
The UK’s ascent as the world’s most active second-hand market is not simply a consumer story; it is a catalyst for process innovation across the e-commerce value chain. Retailers and e-commerce operators need to reassess their data infrastructures, embrace emerging cataloguing standards, and adopt cutting-edge no-code and AI tools to stay competitive. The future of commerce in the pre-loved era will be shaped as much by the quality, speed, and flexibility of content operations as by the underlying consumer demand.
Sources:
- InternetRetailing
- TheIndustry.fashion
The rise of recommerce underscores the growing importance of efficient product data management across e-commerce. The need to handle diverse, often unstructured data, presents significant challenges for online retailers. Platforms like NotPIM are crucial in this context. They empower businesses to streamline the management of product feeds, enrich item descriptions, and ensure data consistency, ultimately enabling them to capture the opportunities presented by the burgeoning second-hand market while maintaining a superior customer experience.