Editor’s Note
The luxury resale market presents a strategic dilemma for brands, balancing the risk of cannibalizing new collections against the opportunity to engage with a booming secondary sector. As this investigation highlights, the market’s growth is undeniable, with rare pieces commanding extraordinary prices.
While the resale of high-end items has become commonplace, some major brands are reluctant to enter the market, fearing it will cannibalize their new collections. Others are forming partnerships with key players in this rapidly growing sector.
confides Osanna Orlowski, co-founder of Collector Square, a platform for reselling second-hand accessories, watches, and luxury goods. While sales of new items are experiencing a slight contraction, the same is not true for pre-owned goods.
specifies Vincent Redrado, founder of the consulting firm DNG.
According to a study by Boston Consulting Group for Vestiaire Collective, this global market could even reach $325 billion by 2030. As first-hand prices have soared (+50% over the last four years, according to HSBC), buying second-hand has become the norm, even among high-spending consumers.
testifies Pénélope Blanckaert, founder of Penelope’s, an auction house specializing in fashion and luxury. A trend confirmed by Klemen Drole, Chief Operating Officer of Vestiaire Collective:
But while the market is flourishing, competition is fierce. Many online players born a decade ago have disappeared, like Monogram Paris. This hasn’t stopped other operators, with more established legitimacy in fashion and luxury, from finally taking an interest. Like Galeries Lafayette, which inaugurated a dedicated 40-square-meter space under the dome of the Haussmann department store a year and a half ago. The retailer even obtained the highly coveted RCPO (Rolex Certified Pre-Owned) certification from Rolex and collaborates with the specialist Castafiore, a platform dedicated to vintage and second-hand jewelry. As for auction houses, which target a more knowledgeable audience, they have modernized and digitized their tools to reach a wider audience among private individuals.
Faced with these newcomers, the sector’s pure players each have their own strategy. Collector Square’s has not changed since its launch in 2013 and is profitable: it involves handling the entire transaction via a fixed-price system applied to a very high-end segment.
indicates Osanna Orlowski. For its part, the French company Vestiaire Collective, which recently appointed Bernard Osta – its former CFO – as CEO, is forced to adapt. According to the media L’Informé, the platform will indeed have to rationalize its costs.
It must be said that in luxury, unlike new goods, second-hand generates only low margins.
notes Vincent Redrado. However, it is an activity that requires significant resources to develop.
details Vincent Redrado.
These are costs that luxury giants themselves could easily absorb if they decided to manage their second-hand operations directly. But this phenomenon is still in its infancy. Gucci confirmed to us that it has abandoned its Vault concept, which aimed to offer vintage items from the house online and in-store. Similar timidity at LVMH, where they prefer to talk about “second life” rather than “second-hand,” and focus on repairability. Marketing? Probably.
explains Vincent Redrado.
