In terms of the scale of the secondhand clothing market for the millennials and Gen Z customers in Shanghai, it is massive, or even enormous. According to the official census from the Chinese government, as of 2020, among the total population in Shanghai, 20.3% were born between 1980 and 1989, and the figure for those born between 1990 and 1999 and those between 2000 and 2009 were 15.0% and 5.5 % respectively (An, 2023). This indicates that about 40.8% of the population in Shanghai is either millennials or Gen Zs, as generally millennials and Gen Zs refer to people born between 1981 and 2012. According to Textor (2023), as of 2020, the total population in Shanghai reached 27.06 million. This means the potential market size of my project will cover about 10.824 million people (27.06 million *40%=10.824 million). In fact, the population in Shanghai is projected to reach 34.34 million in 2023 (Textor, 2020). In other words, in the future, the market size for my project can be even larger than 10.824 million.
In the meantime, in case of secondhand clothes, there are also abundant resources in Shanghai. According to Shi (2019), Chinese people throw away 26 million tons of old clothes every year, but in Shanghai alone, hundreds of tons of clothes are thrown away every day, and less than 10% of them are recycled. In other words, each year, millions of tons of clothes are thrown away in the city of Shanghai along.
In view of what has been presented above, it is clear that my project will deal with a market more than 10 million people and millions of tons of old clothes in the city of Shanghai. This then makes the project at least look quantitatively promising. There is no need to worry about the market.
References
An, A. (2023). Age distribution: 70% in Shenzhen are born in the 1980s, 37% in Nantong, and Zhengzhou is very special. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1765022074042048951&wfr=spider&for=pc
Shi, T. (2019). Recycling plastic bottles to make clothes, making “garbage” clothing fashionable in Shanghai. https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_4656101
Textor, C. (2020). Estimated population of the urban area of Shanghai, China from 1980 to 2035(in millions). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/466938/china-population-of-shanghai/