A step-by-step guide to selling your preloved clothes
Every five minutes 10,000 items of clothing are sent to landfill - and there’s over £30 billion of unworn clothes hanging in our wardrobes. So with stores such as M&S and Zara setting up their own preloved schemes, Alice Beer’s here to show you how to sell your second-hand clothes on the high street and online to make some cash and help the planet.
The preloved clothing market is on the rise, but why is it so important?
£30 billion worth of clothes that have never been worn are hanging in UK wardrobes.
The average adult has not worn 25% of clothes in their wardrobe in a year or more.
As many as 8 in 10 Brits wear the same few clothing items on loop, with just 6% wearing everything in their wardrobe at least once.
There is a crisis in disposing of unwearable clothing at the moment.
10,000 items of clothing are sent to landfill every 5 minutes (equivalent to £140 million in value).
There is clothing that has been thrown away here and shipped over to Chile and Ghana.
If it contains plastics the clothes are then burned - then this produces many toxic substances.
So, what are our wardrobe clear out options?
1) Sell it back to the high street
a) ZARA: Use 'Zara Resell' to buy and sell Zara clothing. You receive 100% of the sale price.
b) H&M: Take a bag of old clothes or textiles to your nearest H&M and receive a £5 voucher.
c) M&S/Oxfam: Donate to Oxfam, including items from M&S, and receive a £5 voucher.
d) M&S/Sparks: Trade in your old M&S school uniform and get 20% off children's clothing.
e) John Lewis: Sign up to 'My John Lewis', donate five+ items and receive a £5 voucher.
f) River Island: Send items to 'Reskinned' and you'll get a £5 voucher to use at River Island.
g) New Look: Give clothes to a participating hospice and you'll get 15% off at New Look.
h) Schuh: Schuh will give you a voucher for every pair of shoes you donate in store.
i) George at Asda: Donate clothes and textiles at Asda and get a 10% off code for George.
2) Resale shops on the high street
If you have a resale shop or dress agency as they used to be called, on your high street, they generally take about 50% of the sale price and can be very picky.
If they don't sell your items, you are asked to donate to charity or pick them back up.
3) Selling online
a) Vinted: 3 million+ users. 30+ target audience. Easy to navigate but buyers charged a fee.
b) Vestiaire Collective: Good for designer clothes. Free to list. Authenticated items.
c) eBay: Used by millions daily. Option to make offers on clothes. 10% charge on all sales.
d) Facebook Marketplace: App offers better experience. Local selling. Completely free.
4) What about children's clothing?
Sweet Pea
Sweet Pea buys and sells children's clothes from newborn to 15 years old.
High street brands are paid per kilo. £3 p/kg not ironed or £5 p/kg ironed or £10 per kilo if they still have their tags.
High street to luxury brands all quality checked to ensure you can shop secondhand with confidence.
They are environmentally conscious and have saved over 95,000 items of children's clothing in the last 3 1⁄2 years.
Alice's online selling tips:
1. Good photographs are key.
2. Price it to sell it.
3. Check postage options before uploading.
4. Used tracked or signed for postage.
5. Never engage off site.