Will tariffs boost secondhand sales? It’s complicated : NPR

Amid tariffs, commerce wars and basic financial uncertainty, many People are considering additional rigorously about tips on how to spend and save their cash.

Shopper confidence tumbled in March, with the Conference Board‘s Expectations Index — primarily based on shoppers’ short-term outlook on enterprise, earnings and the labor market — dropping to 65.2 out of 100, the bottom in 12 years.

And that was earlier than President Trump introduced a brand new spherical of sweeping tariffs, prompting retaliatory taxes from a number of nations — including China and the European Union — and fueling considerations a couple of possible recession. Whereas he introduced a 90-day delay this week, a ten% baseline tariff stays in impact on items from all nations.

Tariffs are poised to extend the worth of all kinds of products, from groceries to know-how to attire. The U.S. imports nearly all of its clothes and sneakers from different nations — together with from China, which isn’t exempt from the tariffs and now faces a fee of 145%.

“The present scenario is unprecedented as a result of, merely put … all the most important suppliers of attire to the U.S. market, they’ll face a tariff hike,” explains Sheng Lu, professor of style and attire research on the College of Delaware. “Very doubtless, these further sourcing prices will move on to shoppers.”

Value hikes might encourage savvy buyers to purchase extra objects secondhand, whether or not in individual at thrift or consignment shops or on-line from retailers like Poshmark, eBay and ThredUp.

Many individuals — particularly members of Gen Z — are already doing so. A 2025 report by Capital One Buying Analysis discovered that roughly one-third of all clothes and attire bought within the U.S. over the previous yr was secondhand.

A file 58% of buyers purchased secondhand attire in 2024, based on ThredUp’s annual Resale Report, launched in March.

The report predicts that the market will solely proceed to develop globally and within the U.S., no less than partially as a consequence of new authorities insurance policies round tariffs and commerce which might be “anticipated to supply a wholesome tailwind to secondhand.”

The ThredUp research discovered that 59% of shoppers — and 69% of millennials — would search extra reasonably priced choices, like secondhand, if new authorities insurance policies make attire costlier. Secondhand buying has traditionally seen boosts during times of financial uncertainty, like in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Each time there’s an financial downturn, a recession or something like that, there are extra folks that can begin buying resale that won’t have shopped resale earlier than,” says Adele Meyer, govt director of NARTS: The Affiliation of Resale Professionals, a commerce group with roughly 800 members.

Meyer and the retailers she’s speaking to count on that to be true this time round. Shopping for used definitely has its advantages — however, as a number of specialists cautioned NPR, it isn’t precisely a silver bullet.

“It is affordable to see or to count on the booming of the secondhand clothes market, or extra shoppers might want to buy secondhand clothes,” Lu stated. “However I don’t suppose that secondhand clothes might be resistant to the tariff impacts.”

Individuals might not need to store — or donate 

To ensure that one thing to make it to a secondhand retailer, it first must be acquired new. Lu and specialists predict that in tighter occasions, People will doubtless be extra hesitant each to purchase new garments and to donate their outdated ones.

That would finally restrict the availability of secondhand clothes and, in flip, drive costs up.

“I do not suppose the tariff struggle is one thing good or thrilling for the secondhand clothes market,” Lu reiterated.

However Meyer, of the commerce group, downplayed the prospect of secondhand provide dwindling, saying, “It is by no means occurred previously.”

Certainly, some folks could also be newly motivated to promote their undesirable attire and equipment, be it on-line, at consignment retailers or instantly via retailers who provide credit score in change for used merchandise (reminiscent of Madewell and Patagonia).

Both method, specialists say it might take months and even years to see the consequences of tariffs on the secondhand market — whether or not constructive, destructive or negligible.

“The charges of our consumption for objects like clothes are so traditionally excessive in comparison with earlier a long time that it’d simply be a drop within the bucket, no matter occurs,” says Jennifer Le Zotte, a historical past professor on the College of North Carolina Wilmington, who focuses on materials tradition.

It might be an opportunity to rethink buying altogether

Financial pressures might power folks to rethink not simply the place they store, however what — and the way a lot — they’re shopping for.

Each the secondhand market and People’ buying habits have modified significantly in current a long time, Le Zotte says. There are more and more extra specialised locations to buy garments — and extra strain to take action.

“The style trade publish World Struggle II was actually good at deliberate obsolescence and dashing up seasons for style clothes,” she defined. “So you possibly can’t put on final season’s clothes or Pantone’s colors from 2019.”

To maintain up, many People purchase garments from low cost quick style retailers like Shein. Merchandise from Chinese language e-commerce corporations like Shein and Temu are as a consequence of develop into much more costly after an govt order from Trump closes the “de minimus” shipping loophole on Could 1.

Quick style objects weren’t made for the secondhand market, Le Zotte stated, since they are not more likely to promote for a lot much less and possibly will not maintain up as nicely via a number of homeowners.

She would like to see this financial second change the way in which folks take into consideration shopping for clothes.

“That is maybe wishful considering, however it may spur larger consideration to issues like gradual style, the place folks determine to purchase extra sturdy, long-lasting clothes however not have as many alternative objects of clothes of their particular person wardrobes,” she added.

Lu agrees that the second presents a possibility for reflection.

“If this reminds shoppers about their precise wants for clothes or whether or not they really want to spend a lot cash buying new clothes … perhaps this might be a silver lining of all these [tariffs],” he stated.

He encourages shoppers to do their homework, whether or not that is revisiting the dimensions of their clothes finances, buying in their very own closets or monitoring worth fluctuations for issues they really want.

He says shops need folks to maintain buying, and shoppers will nonetheless have choices even when costs are increased.

Le Zotte encourages buyers to consider buying sustainably — and never simply within the environmental sense. She recommends folks select objects they will put on for a very long time, each as a result of the standard is sturdy and since they are not only a passing development.

“It is a good suggestion for folks to domesticate and study what seems good on them … and maintain on to these,” she added. “Even when someone tells you they’re out of style, someone or some promoting tells you that that is not the reduce of denims or coloration that’s on this season — if it fits you aesthetically and bodily, maintain on to it.”

Try NPR’s Life Equipment for skilled tips about cultivating a sustainable closet, getting probably the most out of the thrift store and regifting (in a great way).