Rising awareness

According to a report released by the China Mobile Research Institute last year, secondhand consumption reflects young people's awareness of environmental protection and of the need to reduce waste and mismatch of resources. Such consumption also provides them with a new channel to seek friends with common interests.

Lu said: "Humans are the creators of everything in life and should be responsible for everything they have created." She added that Chinese are still relatively new to buying secondhand items, and most participants in this market were initially foreigners.

"However, in recent years, more and more Chinese have joined in, accounting for 50 percent of the overall participants," Lu said.

She added that with the concept of "going secondhand" attracting more people, some vendors and buyers have introduced their parents and friends to this market.

Lu plans to expand her business online to enable more people to experience the secondhand market.

Meanwhile, the Deja Vu recycling store, which launched in Beijing in 2017 and later opened an outlet in Shanghai, started out by selling secondhand books before developing its apparel and electronic products business. By the end of last year, the business had sold more than 20 million books.

As the store's slogan states, "A really good thing is worth buying twice."