Zara Is Taking Over Thrift Stores, Says Report
Zara is top of the thrift pile, according to a new report.
A report from charity-linked discount finder Savoo named Zara the most popular secondhand brand, with more than 670,000 listings across the major resale platforms. Other ranked brands by listings volume include Nike, Adidas, H&M, Victoria’s Secret, Asos, Levi’s, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel.
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Zara’s popularity reigns across Depop, eBay, Vestiaire Collective (though the platform recently pledged to ban fast fashion by 2025) and Asos Marketplace. Out of all the brands and marketplaces analyzed in the study, Depop has the most Zara items listed, at 439,696. Brick-and-mortar consignment shop Crossroads affirms in its buying guide that it buys what its customers want right now, which includes items from Lululemon, Louis Vuitton, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Topshop, Levi’s, Gap, Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Burberry, Madewell, Zara and Free People, among others.
While the brand may be popular in the thrift world, Zara has been the target of environmental activism recently. On Black Friday, the retailer saw Extinction Rebellion protests outside of its store in Amsterdam, with protesters calling attention to the importance of secondhand clothing. Last month, contemporary artist Natacha Belova staged a performance outside a Zara location in France, dragging a giant textile ball two meters to highlight outsized waste.
“Sustainability continues to transform the way we shop and consumers are becoming more vocal about what they want in a brand,” said Ed Fleming, manager director at Savoo.
The same report also scored Europe’s 30 most populous countries based on sustainability performance, measuring factors such as recycling rate, amount of thrift stores, waste and ability to curb consumption. Savoo also referred to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development index in its ranking. Each metric was ranked and scored to give a total possible score out of 10 with higher scores being better.
Finland was ranked first with a 41.6 percent recycling rate and a 20.37 percent rate of consumption reduction across 2010 to 2020. (The lower scorers, like the U.K., grew consumption rate by as much as 26 percent). Denmark placed second in Savoo’s ranking, reducing its consumption footprint by 14.26 percent between the same time period, and Slovenia placed third, producing the lowest household waste — just 34 kilograms of waste per household. This compares to Sweden’s 81 kg of household waste, which was on the higher side for those ranked. The U.K. did rank favorably for its thrift shops, which number at 1,292.
In the report, Savoo also offered shoppers advice on kicking a fast-fashion habit: to use the 30 wears test as a benchmark (or challenging shoppers to avoid buying an item unless they will wear it 30 times) and to learn to repair clothing (something luxury purveyors have on their side).
