Your neighbours are doing it. Your friends are doing it. Your spouse has probably done it, online, more than once, without you even knowing. Canadians coast-to-coast are saving and earning big-time bucks via our thriving online second-hand economy.
Whether it’s a savvy shopper looking for an updated wardrobe or a consumer on a budget, those purchasing online second-hand goods know it’s a cost-crunching alternative to buying new products in a store. The market for previously used products brought in as much as $36 billion to Canada’s economy last year, as the average adult Canadian granted new life to 77 unwanted products, according to a new study that was produced collaboratively by Kijiji and researchers from the University of Victoria.
The study also showed that Canadians saved an average of about $480 last year by buying something second-hand, either from an online website, a bricks and mortar store, or somewhere else. People selling items fared even better, with the average Canadian who sold something earning an average of $883. It also found that Canadians bought and sold more than 1.8 billion second-hand items last year, an increase of 29 million items from the previous year. That’s an average of 77 items for each Canadian adult.
Some items that are more likely to be given a second chance than others fall into one of the following five ranked categories:
1. Clothing, shoes and fashion accessories.
2. Entertainment products.
3. Baby clothing and accessories.
4. Games, toys and video games.
5. Indoor/outdoor household and decoration items.
It is interesting to note that by adding the first and third categories together, the sales of things (that’s online and in-store) that people wear accounted for 40 per cent of transactions across the country last year. You can find more information about Canada’s second-hand economy at http://secondhandeconomy.kijiji.ca
With that in mind, Canadians seem to be in the number 1 spot for Internet usage, at 45 hours per month, almost double the global average. Add that to the downturn in the Lonnie, Canadians seem to be clicking that buy button for used online items from the comfort of their couch a lot more often these days. Also too, there is a time saving feature to shopping online with less people paying tax on used items using sites like Kijiji or NL Classifieds. Finally, it seems to be easier to compare prices, with more variety and no crowds in addition to the explosive growth of social media that helps further promote the sale of online used items.
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