With more Scots than ever before purchasing pre-loved products it seems that second-hand is no longer seen as second-best.

Those are the findings from the Scottish Retail Consortium and Opinium’s latest Consumer Sentiment Monitor. It shows the proportion of people who had either bought or sold second hand items – from sofas to smartphones – over the past year had surged across most categories of products measured.

This growth is perhaps unsurprising, with online platforms and the prevalence of charity shops making buying and selling pre-loved items more accessible than ever.

Read more:

Labour reshapes the retail landscape, and not for the better

Our survey shows furniture witnessed the biggest growth, with the proportion of people buying or selling second-hand during the year rising 6% to 21%. This was closely followed by the growth in sales of smaller electronics such as phones and laptops, and then books and DVDs.

Adult clothing remained the most popular second-hand items to buy or sell, with 43% of respondents saying they had bought or sold these products. However, this was down a touch on the previous year. The other categories to report modest falls were........

© Herald Scotland