Artificial intelligence will spur on sales of secondhand clothing, according to the boss of one of the biggest online resale sites, after global sales rose 15% last year – more than four times faster than the wider market.

Pre-loved clothing items now account for $227bn (£175bn) or 9% of total fashion sales, according to a report by analysts at GlobalData for online the clothing reseller ThredUp. The figure represents a big leap over the past five years and has led to resellers eating into the market share of major clothing retailers.

Sales are expected to increase by a further 11% this year as new technology, such as search tools that use AI, helps shoppers to find the items they want.

Cash-strapped shoppers in the US are also expected to seek out pre-loved garments if the imposition of tariffs on goods made in China pushes up clothing prices.

James Reinhart, chief executive of ThredUp, which is headquartered in the US, said: “The market will have a break out year relative to previous years. It is not likely to have the same downward pressures from tariffs that the rest of the industry will face and [when] the American consumer deals with more insecurity, the pursuit of value is heightened.”

He added that new AI-enabled search tools which can put together outfits, find pre-loved items from a photo of, for example, a celebrity’s outfit or offer a variety of cheaper options to one in a shoppers’ basket “will really improve secondhand shopping experiences relative to shopping new”.

The study showed that more people are prepared to buy secondhand than ever before: 58% last year, up 6 percentage points on 2023.

The trend is being spearheaded by young people, 68% of whom bought secondhand last year, aided by the rise of specialist sites such as Vinted, Depop, ThredUp and eBay.

This week Vinted will open its first high street pop-up, in London, where shoppers can view – but not immediately take home – collections curated by influencers including Susie Lau and Victoria Magrath. Retailers from Primark to Selfridges are also offering vintage sections in their stores.

However, Reinhart admitted that growth in the sale of secondhand fashions had not quite met expectations, failing to hit a goal of accounting for 10% of the global fashion market.

He said that in making those forecasts, the industry had “underestimated the penetration of Shein and Temu”, the rapidly growing online retailers which have offered budget-conscious shoppers an alternative to secondhand.

Planned changes to the de minimus rules in the US and Europe could rein in the Chinese online sellers’ ability to send parcels direct to consumers without paying import tax and will further help resale sites.

The Trump administration is thought less likely to adopt legislation similar to that recently introduced in the EU to control textile waste with mandated collection points that could help drive resale.

At ThredUp itself sales rose just 1% to $260m last year but it made a $40m loss from continuing operations, even after selling off its loss-making European operation.

Reinhart said ThredUp had been profitable on an underlying basis for more than a year and claimed that “the narrative of resale not being able to make money is outdated”.

The UK-based rival Depop increased sales by 31% to £71.3m in 2023, when its losses narrowed by more than a quarter to £48.6m. However, the online secondhand fashion seller Vinted reported a 61% rise in sales to almost €600m (£513m) in 2023, taking the company out of the red for the first time.