Second-hand market ripens as China’s $3bn platform plots US IPO
Tencent-backed online second-hand marketplace Beijing Zhuanzhuan Spirit Technology (BZST) is plotting a $400m funding round ahead of an initial public offering, according to reports.
BZST, currently valued at $3bn, is trying to gauge interest from private equity and strategic investors, Bloomberg first reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The second-hand retailer is eyeing a US IPO for as soon as next year, the people said.
Consumers in China, the UK and the rest of the world are increasingly embracing second-hand goods, from clothing to technology.
Chinese electronics focussed recycling and trade-in platform Aihuishou International raised around $227m from a US IPO just last month.
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Second-hand moneymaker
June also saw online marketplace Etsy snap up London-based second-hand fashion resale platform Depop for $1.6bn, which has been a hit among Gen Z shoppers.
Last year the company booked gross revenue of $70m — double the previous year as second-hand shopping has gripped consumers conscious of the environmental impact of fast fashion.
While confirming the deal, Etsy said the second-hand market was forecast to grow to twice the size of fast fashion on a global basis, reaching $64bn by 2024.
The fresh market, despite built on selling used goods for less money, has been emerging as quite the moneymaker for shareholders.
Just weeks ago, resale marketplace heavyweight eBay said it is set to sell a majority stake in its South Korean branch to retailer E-Mart for $3bn.
While South Korea’s E-Mart, part of retail giant Shinsegae Group, has agreed to buy 80 per cent of eBay’s branch for $3bn – it makes up a little over a 10th of eBay’s total revenue.
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The environmental weight of fash fashion and consumer-driven waste among shoppers have fuelled the success behind the likes of BZST and Depop.
The synthetic materials used in an increasing amount of fast fashion clothing means it could take thousands of years to break down, think tank Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) said last month.
In a damming report for the UK’s fast fashion industry, the RSA found that half of fast fashion items sold by online brands like Boohoo and Missguided, are made solely from non-recycled plastics.
Beyond fashion, Amazon came under fire in late June for destroying hundreds of thousands of unsold items every week, amounting to millions of items each year, many of which are new and unused.
An undercover investigation by ITV found the online retail giant sorted Smart TVs, laptops, drones, hairdryers, top of the range headphones, computer drives, books and thousands of sealed face masks into boxes marked ‘destroy’ at its Dunfermline warehouse.
And with consumers more environmentally and climate-conscious than ever before, the market’s trajectory appears strong.
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