Survey: Three out of four Romanians bought secondhand clothing in the last three years

Nearly three-quarters of Romanians (74%) have bought secondhand clothing in the past three years, and more than half have also purchased secondhand furniture, electronics, or appliances, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos for ING Consumer Research across six European countries.

Choosing secondhand products is primarily a financial decision for Romanians. Thirty percent of the Romanian respondents say they choose secondhand clothing because of the more affordable price, and the desire to spend less is another important reason.

However, secondhand purchases do not necessarily replace new products. A total of 36% of those who say they have bought more secondhand clothing in recent years reported that, during the same period, they also increased their purchases of new items.

In many cases, interest in secondhand goods is growing as people gain confidence in this shopping experience, the authors of the survey explain. Among Romanians who have bought secondhand products in the last three years, 43% say they buy secondhand children’s clothing more often, and 37% buy secondhand adult clothing more frequently.

Even when it comes to purchases that typically require more careful consideration, such as home appliances and electronics, about 3 in 10 respondents say they have started choosing secondhand options more often.

While at the European level, many consumers say they do not buy such products simply because they do not need them, in Romania reservations about secondhand purchases are primarily related to trust. For clothing, the main concerns relate to hygiene, cited by up to 23% of respondents. In the case of electronics and home appliances, concerns center mainly on possible hidden defects (23%) and the product’s condition, specifically its quality and degree of wear and tear (17%).

At the same time, for 60% of Romanian respondents, the first option when they no longer wear certain clothes is to give them to friends or family, thus extending the items’ lifespan. Europeans, however, place greater value on old clothes on average, and 44% of them choose to sell the clothes they no longer use and then drop them off at collection points.

The survey was conducted using online questionnaires administered to nationally representative samples in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Romania, and Poland. The interviews were conducted in April 2026. In Romania, the survey was conducted with a sample of 1,000 respondents.