Used products at 27 billion, more than one in two sold online

"In 2024, the second-hand economy in Italy generated a value of €27 billion," explains Giuseppe Pasceri, CEO of Subito, an online platform for buying and selling products of all kinds. "It is a disintermediated and distributed economy, which puts value back into circulation and has been chosen by more than 27.2 million Italians who have bought or sold second-hand goods. The growth is constant, given also by the increasing number of Italians who consciously choose it because it is circular and economically sustainable too'. This is the picture provided by the eleventh edition of the Second Hand Economy Observatory conducted by Bva Doxa for Subito to photograph the trends in the increasingly digital second-hand trade between private individuals.

Last year was the year of the overtaking of online sites and platforms over traditional marketplaces. Online, objects, products, clothing, cars and motorbikes, sporting goods and a thousand other things, excluding real estate, changed hands for 14.4 billion, or 54% of the value of the entire market, with growth of 4 percentage points over 2023, the year of equilibrium. In 2014 only 5.4 billion came from online out of a total of 18. Online shopping, therefore, drives the overall growth in the value of this market, with 69% of Italians saying they have bought or sold pre-loved items online. "I would add that digital will continue to grow, thanks to the increasingly e-commerce-like experience as a quick and safe answer to everyday needs," the CEO continues, "alongside the physical experience of markets and specialised shops, which is still a pleasure. There still seems to be room for growth for the second hand, where the need to save money and the growing choice to reduce one's impact go hand in hand'.

At the heart of online and offline exchanges, with a value of 10.8 billion, are cars, vans and motorbikes with a substantially stable trend compared to 2023. This is followed by the heterogeneous set of household and personal items such as clothing, accessories, and household appliances, a mix worth a further 7.3 billion with a steadily growing trend in recent years, IT and consumer electronics items at 5.2 billion (+6%) while the slight decline in sporting goods, hobbies, books and musical instruments continues at 3.1 billion, down by a hundred million.

On average, the frequency of buying and selling is once every six months with a peak of once every two or three months in 26% of cases. Second-hand goods are a mine to be tapped into when you need something and need to save money. This is the main need for 61% of the sample, which has been put in a corner by the double-digit inflation of recent years. Among the other motivations, the smart approach to the circular economy and sustainability are slightly down while the desire to buy vintage products and because new products are unobtainable are stable. Those who sell not only give new value to household objects but also collect an average of 820 euro per year with peaks of 1,415 euro in Veneto and 919 euro in Campania. A breath of fresh air for household coffers because for 58% second-hand goods allow them to save a lot or enough compared to new.