In Italy alone, the second-hand market is worth 27 billion euros, equal to 1.2% of the national GDP.
This is reported by BVA Doxa's Secondhand Economy Observatory, and globally it is growing three times faster than traditional retail, according to Boston Consulting Group and Vestiaire Collective. But the brands that created these products remain outside this market, without visibility or revenue. Analysis conducted by the startup Dresso shows that the unmanaged secondary market represents, on average, between 10 and 20% of a brand's first-hand revenue, with peaks in the luxury and children's clothing segments. Products from a single brand can sell up to twenty thousand units in a single day on major second-hand marketplaces, at prices completely beyond the manufacturer's control and compromising their positioning on the primary channel.
"When a brand analyzes the data from its unmanaged resale, it almost always discovers the same thing: its most aggressive competitor isn't an industry competitor, but its own pre-sold product circulating on the secondary market at prices it can't control . This is real, traceable revenue that companies are simply giving away to the market," says Enrico Pietrelli, co-founder and CEO of Dresso, an Italian startup that developed the 2NDACT platform, which allows fashion brands to manage and enhance their secondary market. These items can no longer be sold in the primary channel, such as returns from e-commerce, wholesale, storefronts, or runway shows. These items often lose value in the traditional market, but when reintroduced into the secondary market, they generate a new revenue stream and reduce waste in the supply chain.
Two requirements in particular will soon force brands to rethink their post-sale product management: the digital product passport, introduced by the ESPR Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, which came into force in July 2024, will be mandatory for the textile sector by 2027. Each garment will have to have a unique digital identity accessible via QR code or NFC, containing information on composition, supply chain, durability, and life cycle.
And the ban on the destruction of unsold textiles introduced by the ESPR, effective for large companies from July 19, 2026, and for medium-sized companies by 2030, puts an end to a practice that annually in Europe burns between 4 and 9% of unsold textiles before they are even worn, generating approximately 5.6 million tons of CO₂ annually, a volume comparable to Sweden's annual net emissions. Brands will be required to find verifiable alternatives, with public reporting requirements for the volumes eliminated: resale, reconditioning, reuse.
To comply with regulations, brands will need to know where their products are located, who bought them, and how many times they changed hands. This traceability infrastructure hasn't existed in the secondary market until now.
(Unioneonline/D)
