Kijiji says that second-hand economy saves money while generating income for Canadians
Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 9:29AM 
Selling or bartering off items you don't need to make money for something you do want is both sensible and worthwhile. The popularity of services like Craigslist, Kijiji as well as localized trading and selling apps like Bunz and Letgo are a testament to this second-hand economy.
Kijiji's third annual Second-Hand Economy (SHE) Index found 30.4 million more second-hand goods traded hands last year than the year before, as the Second-Hand Economy continues to represent a consistent and sizeable part of the country’s overall economic activity.
Last year, 1.9 billion previously used items were bought, sold, swapped or donated by Canadians, according to new data released today by Kijiji, Canada’s largest online classifieds site.
Canadians spent a total of $29 billion buying second-hand goods in 2016, up $1 billion from the previous year. To put that into perspective, the Second-Hand Economy is larger than Canada’s entire agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing sectors combined (a total of $28.3 billion), and almost equal to the GDP of Newfoundland & Labrador ($30.1 billion, according to latest data available).
“The Second-Hand Economy goes hand in hand with the sharing economy, as Canadians find bargains and monetize their existing assets,” said Kijiji General Manager Matt McKenzie. “Canadians earned an average of $1,037 from second-hand sales, while buyers of second-hand goods saved an average of $843 last year. Most respondents to the survey say they used that money for day-to-day expenses like gas, groceries and rent payments.”
