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Love Island boost: eBay searches for 'preloved fashion' jump by 700%

Last month, we featured a collaboration between eBay UK and the British TV show Love Island. Instead of being dressed in fast fashion, this season the program's contestants would be wearing secondhand clothing, with eBay presenting a curated selection of similar, used garments for viewers to buy from the marketplace's sellers. One month later and halfway through the season, results on the collab are in.

Innovation update

Love Island has always had strong ties with fashion. It's been sponsored by retailers like ISawItFirst and Missguided, and popular contestants are swiftly snagged to model for brands looking to cash in on their influencer status. As reported by Fashion United, Love Island has been known to benefit brand sales in a big way: in 2018, for example, Missguided stated that the reality show boosted sales by 40% compared with the eight weeks before the show started airing.

Now, eBay got a similar boost: the marketplace has seen 700% more searches for 'preloved fashion' since its partnership with Love Island was announced. Meanwhile, Google searches for 'ebay preloved clothes' have jumped by 756% in the UK, and those for 'preloved' saw a 660% increase compared to last month.

Jemma Tadd, Head of Fashion at eBay UK, adds: "It's still early days, but we have already seen a shift in consumer shopping habits since the first episode hit our screens just four weeks ago. Searches for preloved are peaking and conversation around the fashion worn by the Islanders continues to grow. Through this partnership, we of course wanted to get people talking about preloved, but more importantly we wanted to see people thinking and acting differently — and we're delighted to see that change coming to life."