Luxury resale market helps brands recruit new fans

By

Robin Driver

Published
Oct 16, 2019

As the second-hand luxury market continues to go from strength from strength, resale platform Vestiaire Collective has teamed up with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to release a study highlighting three reasons that brands should be leaning into the growing trend.

 
Entitled “Why Luxury Brands Should Celebrate the Pre-Owned Boom,” the study points out that the second-hand market can function as an effective recruitment mechanism for luxury brands, serving to introduce them to consumers who can’t afford to buy their products on the primary market at the present time but who often maintain brand loyalty as they mature and their spending power increases.
 
Indeed, 62% of those surveyed as part of the study revealed that they bought a brand that they liked for the first time on the second-hand market, with almost the same percentage saying that they would purchase items from the same brand again. More importantly, though, 57% also said that they would either definitely buy or consider buying from the brand first-hand in the future.

While the majority of second-hand buyers (71%) said that they bought items on the pre-owned market that they could not afford first-hand, 70% of sales made on Vestiaire Collective are made by sellers who rarely buy second-hand themselves.

In this way, the pre-owned market also encourages these pre-owned sellers to buy more first-hand. 32% of sellers surveyed by the study said that their main reason for selling was to fund further purchases on the primary market, while 44% claimed that they purchased more expensive luxury items thanks to their resale activities.
 
The third reason highlighted by BCG and Vestiaire Collective for luxury brands to embrace the second-hand boom is the fact that it promotes sustainability in the luxury industry.

Adopting a favorable approach to resale is, therefore, not only a commendable ethical stance, but also makes clear business sense in that it can be seen to boost a brand's eco credentials – especially important at a time when much sought-after millennial and Gen-Z consumers are increasingly concerned with ecological and social issues.
 
The “Why Luxury Brands Should Celebrate the Pre-Owned Boom” study is based on a survey of more than 1,005 Vestiaire Collective users in October 2018, as well as the results of the 2019 BCG x Altagamma survey, which included 12,000 respondents.