Marketplaces rule
Nordic consumers love online marketplaces for their second-hand offers. Around eight in ten Danish shoppers made their second-hand purchases via these platforms. The most popular marketplaces for pre-owned items are consumer-to-consumer (C2C) websites. On these sites, deals are made between private buyers and sellers — for instance via the Finnish site Tori.fi, the Norwegian Finn.no, and Danish site DBA.dk. In Sweden, the major circular markets are Blocket.se and Tradera.se. Big local players own and invest in most of these profitable marketplaces in the Nordic region. The Schibsted group owns Tori, Finn, DBA, and Blocket, while Tradera is owned by PayPal.Tori has seen success in recent years, as the marketplace generated a revenue of 32.5 million euros in 2021, up from 9.6 million euros in 2020. eBay is another major leaguer; the company invested in the Norwegian mobile-only marketplace Tise in 2022. Tise is a fashion company with a strong foothold in all Nordic countries that seeks to expand further into the European market.
Pinching pennies
Saving money is the main reason Nordic shoppers buy pre-loved goods. Consumers want both cheaper items and to try more expensive products they would rather not purchase at full price. When comparing genders, men are more inclined to buy used items because of the lower price point. While for women, the environmentally friendly aspect of online shopping is a particularly important cause.In 2022, fashion was the most purchased pre-owned category in all Nordic countries. When it came to mobile, there was also a high demand for used fashion in the app market. The fashion app Tise was consistently one of the most downloaded recommerce apps in Denmark, Finland, and Norway in 2022. Apps from other European fashion companies were also popular, such as Vestiaire Collective, Vinted, and Zadaa. Despite the growing popularity of second-hand clothing apps, Nordic C2C online marketplaces still dominated the top recommerce app charts that year.
