The TikTok explosion since 2020 has rocked the social media boat making the jump from Instagram photos to reels. Boomers had Facebook, millennials had Instagram and Gen Z is engaging more with video content on TikTok.
Each time we see the emergence of a new social media platform, it bursts with new opportunities for brands and businesses. Social media has been a platform for clothing resellers to reach their customers, and now all trends point to TikTok as the future of thrift shopping.
The curated fashion industry and the self-made clothing resellers are trading in Instagram posts for Tiktok reels. It was just a matter of time until digital thrifting made the next leap, and it is doing wonders for small business clothing resellers and the closet selling side hustlers.
A Brief History of Digital Thrifting
If you haven't seen Netflix's Girl Boss, inspired by the and life of Sophia Amoruso, it is a classic story of a young woman who turns side her hustle into her nine-to-five. In 2006 Amoruso was selling clothes on eBay and leveraged it into her own online brand, NastyGal.
Thrifting didn't use to be viewed as cool, it was quite the opposite. Although if someone struck gold, something that would normally be really expensive, it was considered a find. Since the 2010s, curated thrift shops rose as an industry. They provide people with previously owned designer or trendy clothes, for less than their commercial value but still with a hefty price tag. The industry caught hipster millennial attention because they offered a gold mine instead of a diamond in rough.
Since 2014, online shopping has tripled sales revenue, according to Statistica. As online shopping grew in popularity, online thrifting followed. First came eBay, then Facebook Marketplace and eventually, the apps followed. Companies such as Poshmark, Depop, ThredUp and Vinted allow people to resell their clothes to a market. Thus emerged the sell-your-clothes-on-the-side business for fashion lovers.
This move gave the power to fashion consumers, instead of small businesses, but not without a fee. Most of the popular apps take a percentage of the profits, usually from 5-20 percent but depending on the app it can be more.
What was unexpected was how social media played into the reselling process. Using social media is necessary for small business owners and it has expanded with the clothing resale industry as the best way to brand yourself.
TikTok Is the Newest Thrifting Platform
The fashion industry has been completely changed from TikTok. Fashion influencers are getting job offers from big-time brands, models are being scouted and smaller brands are reaching consumers. Fashion lovers say they TikTok, through reels, more than other forms of social media because it is more real, and less filtered than other platforms.
As TikTokers are constantly making content with the biggest trends, fashion lovers leverage this feature for making reels. In addition to reels about how to put together outfits, it has become the newest marketing tool for clothing resellers. Reels allow the sellers to make a variety of content, more than just showing off what they are selling.
A huge trend on TikTok is how-to videos. Search resell clothes, and hundreds of clothing resellers will tell you how they run their business. Many find out when bins, which are clothing recycle centers such as GoodWill, get their inventory.
Resellers show themselves sorting through mountains of recycled clothes and picking out trendy items. At these centers, payment is by the pound making it a cheap product for resellers. They make their profit by reselling through their online store at a higher price, which is a huge margin line in terms of economic growth. The more often resellers go to collect inventory, the more they can grow their stores.
Other videos include thrift shopping ride alongs where the TikToker takes the viewer thrift shopping with them. Many reels feature the TikToker shopping and searching through racks, and showing off their deals and finds.
Resellers taking their business to TikTok was a logical business move. Digital marketing 101, who is your audience and how do you reach them. Your Depop store is only as successful as your marketing, which social media offers for free.
Gen Z are people under 23, so they are probably just entering the workforce (internal link when possible). They are a perfect market consumer for previously owned clothes, as Gen Z loves the trends but doesn't necessarily have the funds to bankroll them, and they have declared TikTok as the platform of their generation.
TikTok also allow resellers to show the clothes in a more dynamic way with reels, as well as multiple styles for their products. Fashion reels were already trending, making thift reels allows resellers to reach out to the online fashion community and make it into buyer's feeds.
What is to comeof thrifting on TikTok? We expect more consumer-owned online stores to leverage TikTok to engage with their buyers. Once they start connecting with influencers, it could bring a lot of business to resellers, and maybe even be the driving factor in making a reseller a small business owner overnight.
