Belgium recorded a remarkable surge in activity on second-hand sales platforms in 2023, with nearly 31 million advertisements posted – averaging a staggering new advert posted every second.
As in previous years, car parts dominated the thriving digital marketplace, with almost 7.7 million spare parts for sale throughout the year. The second-largest category was real estate – with 2.69 million houses, building lots, garages, and rooms put up for sale or rent in 2023.
The most searched categories were car parts, houses, and furniture. Popular items on sale were over 1.4 million items for babies, 1.4 million cars, 755,000 bicycles, and mopeds, all of which performed strongly on the digital platform 2èmeMain/2dehands.
The search trends mirrored the sustained interest in sustainability, with the keyword "free" leading the pack with a whopping 21.2 million searches in 2023. The top five search terms also saw familiar keywords, albeit in a different order. "Mobile home" secured 2.86 million searches, followed by "firewood" at 2.73 million and "bike" at 2.4 million. The top five concluded with "van," which garnered 2.33 million searches.
Searches for "mopeds" went up a remarkable 40 times, from 656 searches in 2022 to an impressive 26,613 in 2023. The popularity of "tiny houses" also experienced a remarkable upswing, with keyword skyrocketing from a mere 816 uses in 2022 to an astounding 17,673 times in 2023.
This surge in eco-conscious search trends serves as compelling evidence that sustainability is firmly embedding itself in the consumer habits of today.
