DoneDeal’s Second Hand Ireland Report by David McWilliams

A new report titled ‘Second Hand Ireland’ has revealed a mass retail movement of hundreds of thousands of people online buying and selling everyday items.

While traditional high street retail sales remain sluggish in Ireland, the online second hand Ireland market has witnessed an explosion of activity with growth of 215% over the past 5 years, based on data provided by DoneDeal. This represents trade growing seven times faster than high street retail sales.

Speaking at the launch event, the report’s author, David McWilliams, economist and broadcaster said: “The Irish economy has reached a tipping point. What started out as a small bunch of online traders has become a mass retail movement. This is changing the way we shop, forever. The figures for the volumes buying and selling through the DoneDeal site alone are truly staggering and the long term impact of all this commercial activity on the economy will be extraordinary.”

He continued: “For the economy, it creates a whole new tier of value and activity which contributes enormously to people’s income – and, most interestingly, this income recurs every time something is sold, creating a massive new multiplier for the national economy.  Second hand Ireland is not only here to stay, it is the future and it is growing exponentially.”s.

Potential savings and earnings that consumers can reap from trading second hand items are also highlighted in the report. This covers the complete life cycle of potential consumer events including; life as a college student (average savings 43%), getting married (average savings 66%), moving into a new home (average savings 61%), right through to starting a family and raising kids (average savings 42%).

Today DoneDeal.ie has an average of 157,000 adverts placed on its site each month, across its 207 sections. The three most popular sections in terms of adverts placed last year were Motor (46%), House & DIY (17%) and Electronics (8%). When it comes to the five most popular searches last year, ‘BMW’ came out on top with 2,244,638 searches, followed by ‘John Deere’ on 792,020 searches, ‘iPhone’ with 475, 902 searches, ‘Sofa’ with 421,808 searches and ‘Bike’ with 154,309 searches.

Over the past number of years there has been a big shift from desktop use to mobile platforms when accessing sites like DoneDeal.ie. Latest figures revealed in the ‘Second Hand Ireland’ report indicate that 57% of DoneDeal visits are now done through the DoneDeal app and the mobile web, which indicates the real significance of mobile as a channel of choice for consumers.

Copies of the full report can be downloaded from the website, http://tomorrowsireland.ie/