Swiss Online Shoppers Are Europe's Leaders in Second-Hand Sales

Online marketplaces for private individuals are booming all around Europe, and the “consumer to consumer” market is very dynamic. But Swiss nationals have, more than anywhere else, adopted this new e-shopping trend, as four out of five online shoppers in Switzerland regularly buy or sell used items online.

DPD Switzerland launched special research seeking the trends of second-hand usages in Switzerland to mark Secondhand Day in Switzerland on 28 September 2024. The key findings outline a very dynamic consumer to consumer (C2C) market, promoting the Swiss up on top of the podium. 

Overall, 82 per cent of Swiss online shoppers said that they used a C2C platform to buy or sell items last year – significantly higher than in the previous year (76 per cent). Around one third of them had only started using C2C platforms in the past five years. Almost half of online shoppers now purchase more second-hand products than in the past.  These are the findings of a special analysis by DPD’s E-Shopper Barometer in 2023, which surveys 24,000 online shoppers in 22 European countries each year – including more than 1,000 people in Switzerland. 

Driven by the search of good deals, pandemic and environmental awareness 

The number of users of second-hand platforms has risen sharply in all European countries since 2020. The E-Shopper Barometer attributes this to two key trends: greater awareness of sustainability and the circular economy on the one hand, and the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the other. Both factors together have led to a large majority of the population being open to private online trading of used products. Today, E-Shoppers underline lower prices as the reason most frequently given for C2C purchases by far. On average, Swiss online shoppers purchase something from a private individual eleven times per year.  

For the private sellers, contributing to the circular economy and a lack of space at home are what matter most to sellers. The motivation to make money is ranked third.  

In no other European country do private individuals sell more second-hand goods online than in Switzerland: 57 per cent of the regular online shoppers who responded to the survey said that they use customer-to-customer (C2C) platforms to sell their items. The European average is just 46 per cent. The differences are significant: whereas few used products are sold online in Romania (29 per cent), almost as many are sold in the Netherlands and Spain (55 per cent each) as in Switzerland.  

Commenting on this research, Tilmann Schultze, CEO of DPD Switzerland, stated:

We expect the online second-hand market to continue growing strongly over the next few years. As a parcel service provider, we have been prepared for this trend for a long time. The E-Shopper Barometer clearly shows that the circular economy is tremendously important to users of C2C platforms. Our sustainable deliveries embrace this: our already highly electrified fleet of vehicles will be completely emission-free on a local level from 2030. We are also developing digital solutions to link the online marketplaces seamlessly with our systems.