Love is very much in the air for pre-loved clothing after it’s starring role on Love Island – but what is the actual impact of eBay’s partnership with Love Island? E-commerce expert Optiseller has been analysing the data.

Debates around fashion and its impact on the environment have been ongoing for years, combined with the cost of living crisis, it makes sense that pre-loved clothing is becoming increasingly popular. However, it wasn’t until Love Island, arguably one of the UK’s most loved reality shows, teamed up with eBay to encourage the buying of ‘pre-loved’ clothing that it started making headlines across the UK. The big question is what impact would this partnership have on the pre-loved clothing market?

If you don’t know, this partnership replaced the usual fast-fashion brands such as I Saw it First and Missguided. For the duration of the series, eBay hosted a style edit inspired by the Islanders’ outfits on their site, as well as the Love Island app, hosting a shopfront directly to the eBay style edit, with eBay providing the contents of the cast’s wardrobe every night.

Raymond Booth, Chief Technology Officer at Optiseller explains: “As data lovers and experts, we couldn’t wait to analyse the relationship between this exciting partnership and listing behaviours. We gathered data from selected fashion stores on eBay UK who have listed some of Love Island’s most loved, and similar, brands. We then monitored the number of listings pre and post partnership announcement and gathered sales data for these stores. The split was then broken down to men and women; used, new and unknown; clothing, shoes, accessories, and handbags. We were then able to determine the impact of Love Island on the accessibility of pre-loved clothes on the marketplace – and these were the results.”

Listings and Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) by brand

Firstly, taking a look at the difference between men and women’s listings by brand, there is a clear difference between what is listed for men in comparison to women. Women have more high street brands at their disposal, which makes sense given the coming and going of trends in women’s fashion, whereas men’s trends are less fleeting.

The top 5 clothing brands listed for men were higher end and designer brands such as:

 Marks & Spencer

 Hugo Boss

 Polo Ralph Lauren

 Ralph Lauren

 Superdry

Whereas the top listed brands for women’s clothing were:

 Zara

 New Look

 ASOS

 Boohoo

 Pretty Little Thing

Having seen this data, it may surprise you that out of all brands analysed, Zara had the highest GMV of any clothing brand listed on eBay UK regardless of gender. Zara listings have generated 43% higher GMV than Hugo Boss which generated the second highest GMV of the brands analysed.