Resale’s Next Chapter - and How Circular Helps Brands Get There
According to Boston Consulting Group and Vestiaire Collective’s new 2025 report, “Resale’s Next Chapter,” the secondhand fashion and luxury market is now worth between 210 and 220 billion dollars and is expected to reach 320 to 360 billion by 2030. That means resale is growing three times faster than firsthand retail and will soon represent 10 percent of all fashion sales worldwide.
The global resale market is no longer a sustainability side project - it’s becoming the future of fashion retail.
For brands, this shift creates both opportunity and complexity. And that’s where Circular comes in.
The Resale Boom - and Why Brands Struggle to Scale
BCG’s research makes it clear: while demand for resale is surging, most brands still struggle to make it operationally viable.
Running resale in-house, what BCG calls Model 1: Owned resale, requires handling intake, authentication, pricing, and payouts for thousands of one-of-a-kind items.
It’s a logistics and liquidity challenge. Even global brands have found it difficult to manage resale profitably without specialized systems.
That’s why many brands are moving toward Model 2: Platform partnerships - collaborating with resale-as-a-service providers that handle operations, data, and access to resale-native customers.
But even partnerships need structure, automation, and traceability.
That’s what Circular provides.
Circular Enables Both Owned and Partnered Resale Models. And of course the light-touch pilots.
BCG identifies three main resale models for brands:
1. Owned resale: trade-in and resale via brand-owned stores or websites
2. Partnership resale: co-branded resale-as-a-service through marketplace platforms
3. Light-touch pilots: consignment, take-back campaigns, or curated archive drops
Circular is the technology that makes these models scalable.
With Circular, brands and retailers can launch branded resale programs without building new infrastructure, automate item intake, pricing, seller payouts, and analytics, connect to existing POS systems and marketplaces, manage resale operations and store inventory in one unified dashboard, and get AI-powered pricing suggestions trained on real resale data.
Circular removes the friction BCG highlights as the biggest barrier to resale growth: liquidity, operational complexity, and inventory management. In short - Circular makes resale effortless.
Digital Product Passports: From Compliance to Competitive Advantage
The report highlights the rise of Digital Product Passports (DPPs) - digital IDs that store key product information like authenticity, materials, ownership history, and repairs. The EU’s upcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation will make DPPs mandatory for textiles.
BCG calls DPPs “the digital backbone for scalable, data-driven circular models.”
Circular is built around this exact idea. Our platform already tracks every item’s lifecycle data - enabling integration with DPP standards and preparing brands for the new era of traceable, transparent fashion. This means brands using Circular will be ready for compliance - while also turning that data into customer trust and resale revenue.
Resale Is Becoming a Growth Engine
BCG’s conclusion is clear: “Secondhand is no longer a circular side bet - it’s a foundational lever for growth, brand relevance, and long-term customer engagement.”
Resale drives new customer acquisition, especially Gen Z and aspirational consumers. It increases lifetime value as customers re-engage through resale. And it strengthens sustainability impact by extending product life and reducing waste.
Circular enables all of this - profitably and at scale.
We built Circular because running resale is far more complex than it should be. Our mission is to make it simple, automated, and brand-controlled - the AI-powered operating system for resale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the BCG and Vestiaire Collective “Resale’s Next Chapter” report about?
A: It’s a 2025 study analyzing the growth of secondhand fashion and luxury. The report shows that resale is now worth over 200 billion dollars and is growing three times faster than firsthand retail.
Q: What are the biggest challenges brands face in resale?
A: According to BCG, brands struggle with liquidity, operational complexity, inventory management, and access to resale-focused customers.
Q: How does Circular help fashion brands with resale?
A: Circular provides the technology infrastructure that automates intake, pricing, payouts, and analytics - enabling brands to run resale operations under their own brand or in partnership with marketplaces.
Q: What is a Digital Product Passport (DPP)?
A: A DPP is a digital record attached to each product that contains verified data like materials, authenticity, ownership, and repairs. It’s becoming a regulatory requirement in the EU. Circular’s system is built to support DPP integration.
Q: Why is resale important for brands in 2025 and beyond?
A: Resale isn’t just about sustainability anymore. It’s a major revenue opportunity and a customer acquisition channel - especially among Gen Z and value-driven shoppers.
Key Takeaway
Resale is entering its next chapter - from hype to infrastructure. The brands that win will be those that combine circular ambition with operational excellence.
Circular helps them get there. Making resale effortless, profitable, and scalable.
Want to explore how Circular can help you get started with branded resale? Book a meeting with us or sign up for our platform here.