A mother discovers business opportunities while selling used books, as trading in pre-owned items becomes increasingly common. Yan Dongjie reports.

In the basement of her mother's house in southern Beijing, Zhang Rong spends hours every day reading many children's books one by one and classifying them according to the content.

The 36-year-old mother of a first-year primary school student has noticed a great need for used children's books among parents. So, she recently decided to make a career out of it.

"Children need to read a lot of books, but if you buy them all it adds up to a large expense. I hope more parents can afford original picture books for their children and the price won't be an obstacle," Zhang said.

Used better than none

According to Sun Xinyi, mother of a 2-year-old boy in Changchun, Jilin province, it's not just about books.

She said more young parents are willing to buy secondhand products for their children because these must-have items are usually only used for a short time, so buying them secondhand is a good way to save money.

According to statistics released by MobTech, an intelligent information platform, secondhand deals are more popular among people born after 1995 than those born in the previous decade.

From toys and buggies to crawling mats and protective fences, the 32-year-old has bought a range of secondhand baby products online since her son was 3 months old.

Used books are the items she buys most. "They are usually in mint condition, but about 20 to 30 percent of the original price. With all the secondhand toys and study materials available, my son can enjoy more than I could afford (if the items were bought new). The secondhand market provides more possibilities for children," Sun said, adding that the new lifestyle has eased the financial pressure on her.

Like Sun, more than 20 million users on Xianyu, a popular secondhand exchange platform owned by Alibaba, are mothers, according to data the company released on Mother's Day last year.

Those customers bought more than 50 million secondhand child-related products in 2020, a rise of 8.5 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of child-related used items posted on Xianyu rose by more than 70 percent year-on-year in both 2019 and 2020.