eBay to push UK shoppers towards secondhand this festive season

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Nov 14, 2022

The UK’s burgeoning pre-loved market is being given a big festive hug by eBay. The online marketplace is promoting only secondhand or refurbished deals in the run-up to the Black Friday/Christmas selling season.

The platform said it wants to offer a different approach, with eBay's UK boss Murray Lambell announcing it was time to move away from the “buying for buying's sake mentality”. A focus on secondhand would help consumers with the rising cost of living and was kinder to the planet, he noted.

Lambell also believes Black Friday doesn't deliver the same value as it used to and, instead, encourages a shopping “frenzy” leading to unwanted spending and waste. So eBay said its new strategy was about moving to “thoughtful consumption”.

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“In its current form Black Friday is broken, but it’s not too late to make it relevant for today’s consumer,” Lambell added.

The strategy is a big move for eBay, originally launched as a platform to resell used items, as the majority of its sales are now new items. However, new product will still be available over the Black Friday period, but active promotion will be focused on used goods. Alongside deals on pre-loved fashion from top brands, eBay customers can expect refurbished items like laptops, phones, vacuum cleaners and furniture.

The latest move builds on its pre-loved fashion sponsorship of Love Island earlier this summer, where contestants dressed in secondhand bikinis and other outfits.

And its strategy is backed up by new eBay research that reveals that 52% of people will be shopping for secondhand or refurbished products this festive season, with saving money as the top incentive for 56% of them. This Black Friday, consumers are also intending to spend over £100 less on average than last year, as inflation bites and anxiety about the cost-of-living soars.

In fact, if everyone shops for only preloved or refurbished items, eBay says that the nation could save £8 billion per year, equating to as much as £280 per household. In 2021, it noted eight out of 10 best-selling Black Friday deals purchased were refurbished.