A new report from the Fashion Retail Academy has revealed that while safe shopping online is very popular amongst the under-25s, there is a growing trend for using apps which allow people to buy and sell second-hand products.

This means that the youngest generation of adult consumers is embracing a more circular approach to retail, choosing to resell and recycle the items they order new and avoiding fresh purchases where possible.

This is not just a trend which is being spurred on by a desire to make consumerism more sustainable: it is also influenced by the fact that younger shoppers are eager to save money wherever possible without sacrificing their ability to expand their wardrobes.

Almost a quarter of the people questioned in the survey said that they had taken advantage of resale apps, while a tenth said that they regularly sold old clothing and other products to their friends and family rather than keeping them unused at home or donating them to charity.

In comparison, older consumers are far less engaged with resale apps or second-hand shopping in general. Even Millennial shoppers are significantly less interested in this practice, with around 18 per cent having harnessed resale apps and around a tenth making visits to car boot sales.

In the meantime, the proportion of sales being made by apps where second-hand items are offered has more than doubled in the last half decade, partly explaining the 31 per cent decline in car boot sale visitor numbers.

Digital technologies are clearly playing an important role in reshaping the habits of those people looking to buy used items, and as the younger generation of shoppers emerges and then accumulates more spending power, it will be interesting to see if this trend continues.