This applies to all product categories, but the extent varies. For fashion, furniture and home decor, the decline was marginal, while sales of electronics and sports products fell more.
"But that does not mean we stop shopping second hand. The interest is still very great", says Maria Mikkonen, chief economist at Svensk Handel in a press release.
At the same time, second-hand sales on the internet continue to take market shares, and accounted for 67 percent of sales in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, online sales fell by just over 5 percent compared to last year.
Even though sales were almost 13 percent lower, the proportion of those who shopped second hand every month was only 2 percentage points lower than the same period last year.
