THE PREOWNED BOOM

When I first read the book “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz I realized that the fashion detox that we are facing now is crucial in order to reduce the number of options. Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can reduce anxiety for shoppers. It will make them happier than before. It does not mean that we are loosing our option to choose because the Autonomy of Choice is critical for our well being.

The point is, especially in the digital age, that happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement. We live in an era of hyper consumerism and we are facing in many aspects “tyranny of too many options” as Benjamin Voyer, a behavioural scientist and professor at the Europe Business School in Paris, says. Too many options lead the consumer to struggle to make a decision and leave him always less satisfied.

So maybe the fact that the resale market is growing faster than the traditional retail market is part of detoxing our options and the “end of ownership” era is part of our will to have less.

From one hand, people are selling their goods, especially at the luxury market, and on the other hand, we have alternatives like borrowing vs buying. We are going to buy less.

The younger generations, Millennials and Gen Z, are leading the change. They are buying less and they prefer the second hand market because of their awareness to the fashion Industry’s impact on climate change.

They need to fix what we destroyed till now.

This is the era which “Selling is the new Buying”, says Voyer, Selling is a social activity and it helps the circular economy to reduce waste. It offers a new experience of shopping on our way to our fashion detox. I hope it will lead us to a much happier life and less anxiety as we are facing now in this digital and hyper consumerism era.

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