Why Circularity is More Than a Fashion at eBay

Alexandra Hiatt, hosting a circular economy panel at Blue Earth Forum

eBay may have started with a broken laser pointer in 1995, but 30 years later the digital marketplace is  pioneering a movement bigger than resale alone and has become a cornerstone of the circular economy. Alexandra Hiatt, Head of Buyer and Recommerce, spoke with Sustainable Times at Blue Earth Forum about how the company is approaching circularity and enabling small businesses and investors to do the same.

As sustainability becomes a consumer priority, circular commerce is reshaping the future of retail. The secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $350 billion by 2028, while more than $500 billion is lost annually from underutilised garments. These huge figures underline the case for value recovery and investor opportunity from  circular fashion platforms.

“Circularity is ensuring that products can have an extended life cycle, repaired, resold, refurbished,” says Hiatt. “It’s about finding the right second life for a product.”

From fringe to mainstream

Today, more than 40% of eBay’s global revenue is attributed to refurbished, pre-loved, or reclaimed items. Hiatt points to this as more than just trend data. “Post-COVID, there’s been a drastic rise in understanding of circularity,” she explains, noting that resale, once fashion’s fringe, has now moved into mainstream consumer behaviour.

The company’s annual Recommerce Report found that 71% of UK shoppers now buy secondhand, a statistic backed by industry-wide analysis. According to ThredUp’s 2024 Resale Report , 88% of Gen Z shoppers want brands to help them reduce their environmental footprint. They’re also 2.5x more likely to buy secondhand compared to older generations.

“Fashion’s a gateway,” Hiatt adds, “but the mindset of circular consumption is now expanding into tech, auto, and more.”

Infrastructure for impact

What differentiates eBay from emerging circular startups is its infrastructure. The e-commerce giant’s dedicated Refurbished Hub hosts over 145 brands and integrates resale with quality assurance mechanisms. 

Trust, a historic barrier to resale, is mitigated through services like eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee, which uses expert verification to validate secondhand items. “Resale is backed by experts who check that it's the right product that you think you're buying,” says Hiatt. This blend of operational integrity and consumer confidence is what makes eBay’s circular model attractive to buyers and sellers, she adds.

A platform for small business 

eBay is also a key growth engine for circular small businesses. “The beauty of eBay is that a lot of the circular economy actually started with the Small Medium Businesses (SMBs),” says Hiatt, referencing breakout sellers like MusicMagpie and Pre-Loved Tech. eBay paved the way for the likes of Vinted and Depop who have captured the zeitgeist of circular fashion. Vinted posted €800 million in revenue in 2024 and boasts 75 million users; Vestiaire Collective has raised over €700 million and secured strategic partnerships with legacy fashion houses like Gucci.

Unlike these newer platforms, eBay supports circularity across multiple verticals: fashion, electronics, auto parts. As Hiatt notes, “This isn’t a trend. It’s the future of commerce and we’re just getting started.”

A maturing ecosystem

The momentum behind circular commerce is echoed in the capital markets. A recent Sustainable Times institutional investor survey found that 100% of respondents believe circular fashion aligns with future ESG strategies. This growing appetite for investable, next-generation solutions suggests investors are increasingly looking to startups that can address these gaps from the ground up. In response, a wave of innovation is emerging that rethinks not just how fashion is sold, but how it is made.

You can read the full report here. 

The startup space is seeing new innovations that encompass the entire fashion lifecycle. Gooddrop, in partnership with the University of Nottingham, is pioneering sustainable cotton through indoor vertical farming. In contrast to traditional cotton farming, known for its intensive water use, pesticide dependency, and land demands, Gooddrop’s model uses 95% less water, eliminates chemical inputs, and requires less than 0.5% of the land. By growing cotton in climate-controlled environments the firm offers an alternative that dramatically reduces environmental impact. Their designs have just hit the runway.

Similarly Colorifix, which claims to provide the  world’s first entirely biological textile dyeing process, has secured an $18 million investment round. Led by Inter IKEA Group, the funding is aimed at supercharging the firm’s global expansion. Since its last funding round in 2022, Colorifix has moved well beyond early-stage trials. The company is now active across Europe and Latin America, and it has opened the door to new markets in India and Sri Lanka through fresh licensing deals. This shift marks a turning point from limited industrial pilots to full-scale commercial operations.

As circular commerce shifts from niche to necessary, Hiatt is positioning eBay as a leader in sustainable retail transformation. 

Blue Earth Summit is back for 2025 with an even bigger mission to transform the way the world works and support the changemakers driving positive planet transformation. 

Across private, public and the third sector, the Summit focuses on the value of nature, the power of innovation, the spirit of adventure and the impact of strong leadership from early stage to global business.

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