What second-hand fashion offers luxury brands, and vice versa

On April 14, resale platform Vestiaire Collective unveiled its barometer of the most popular fashion brands on the second-hand market. In the luxury bags category, Chanel topped the ranking with the highest number of product views per user, followed by Louis Vuitton and Hermès. But what do luxury houses really gain from shining in the resale market?

Investment image

Gucci-branded leather goods, positioned fourth in Vestiaire Collective's ranking, are enjoying definite success on the second-hand market. This observation gives an idea of the brand's still-high level of desirability, despite the drop in sales of its new products in recent quarters. This popularity is crucial to the long-term appeal of its iconic first-hand pieces.

If luxury items retain a high value on the second-hand market, consumers will tend to perceive them as investments rather than mere expenses. This may encourage new customers to buy new, knowing that they could potentially recoup some of their money later. They may even reap profits if they resell a Birkin bag from Hermès.

This logic, linking new products with second-hand items, mainly concerns luxury brands' classics for the time being. It is, therefore, not surprising to read in the Kering group's 2024 financial report (owner of Gucci) that the brand's leather goods sales were stimulated by the success of iconic pieces such as the Jackie. The name of this bag also appears in Vestiaire Collective's report as a favourite on its resale platform.

Ready-to-wear from major luxury houses is not to be outdone. In January 2025, auction house Maurice Auction made history with the exceptional sale of a Martin Margiela collection for a record amount (in France) of 1,889,000 euros. This proves that luxury clothing can also become an investment, although leather goods, such as handbags, remain the most popular category for second-hand.

For ready-to-wear, auction houses play a major role in enhancing the value of pieces. While leather goods seem to be able to easily bypass this sales channel to gain value in the eyes of consumers, clothing needs the auction format to be assessed by professionals. This assessment validates it as a serious ‘investment’ by the buyer, who will often be a collector or a museum rather than a consumer.

Today, the investment image associated with luxury ready-to-wear is still limited. Nevertheless, auction sales of pieces from the major couture houses often benefit from good media coverage. They reinforce the brand's prestige on the new market by giving it a heritage image. Brands have been addressing the subject for a long time, and regularly collaborate with major auction houses such as Sotheby's.

Second-hand market does not cannibalise new

Fashion brands are aware that consumers are now approaching them as a way of investing their money. Therefore, they are supporting their storytelling more than ever with historical origins and craftsmanship. These are two crucial arguments that positively influence the value of their second-hand products. They also demonstrate that quality is still present in current collections, and is not just a feature of older models. It is important not to let consumers turn away from new in favour of old, although this fear, that a second-hand market is cannibalising the new, is overestimated.

Studies show that a significant proportion of buyers of second-hand luxury goods are consumers who would not necessarily have bought these brands at full price. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, 71 percent of second-hand buyers buy brands that they could not afford first-hand. This shows that the second-hand market is broadening the consumer base for luxury brands, rather than diverting buyers from the new.

Loyalty and new customers

In addition to influencing brand image, second-hand can also directly impact new-item sales through take-back programmes initiated by certain brands.

While premium brands generally include a second-hand category directly on their e-shop, it is rarer for luxury brands to do the same. This does not mean that they do not play an active role in the resale market. Several of them have formed partnerships with specialist platforms. These collaborations allow them to benefit directly from the amounts generated by the resale of their products, build customer loyalty, acquire new customers and, above all, regain relative control over the downstream end of the chain.

Information from boutiques and e-retailers has long been of paramount importance to luxury brands and giants such as Kering, Richemont or LVMH. However, this information is lost on the second-hand market. Rather than leaving room for uncertainty, several brands have taken back control of the downstream end of the chain represented by resale.

Gucci, for example, has created a take-back programme with Vestiaire Collective which offers holders of a bag from the Florentine brand the opportunity to have their pieces valued and taken back in approved boutiques. In exchange, new customers receive a credit to use in certain of the brand's points of sale. Chloé also offers a similar system with the same resale company.

“Today, we have more than a dozen partners, most of them public, others still in pilot phase,” Vestiaire Collective explained by email when asked about its ‘Brand Approved’ service, launched in 2021.

The service works as follows: via a simplified deposit form, customers are invited to submit their pieces. The platform then submits a tailor-made buyback offer in less than 48 hours. Once it arrives at the Vestiaire Collective warehouse, the partner brand that gave access to the service is notified and allocates a voucher to the seller. Vestiaire Collective states that the number of its partners has been constantly increasing since the service was launched.

For its part, Chanel, one of the most popular luxury brands on the second-hand market, has also expressed interest in regaining control over the life cycle of its sold products. According to the media outlet Glitz, the French house has been calling on leading luxury second-hand companies for more than five years to gather as much information as possible on the potential of this segment: resale prices, particularly sought-after models, etc.

Unlimited customer relations

Although luxury brands are seizing the second-hand market via partnerships with expert companies, the life of products after their initial sale could still escape them if they do not decide to integrate near field communication (NFC) or radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into their products. Among other things, these technologies make it possible to know whether the item is being put back into circulation on the second-hand market. But that's not all.

The other major advantage is that the NFC or RFID chip can create a direct connection between the brand and the product holder, even if they bought it second-hand. Once scanned, the brand can communicate personalised content such as care advice, offer exclusive services (maintenance, free authentication) and even encourage resale on a partner platform.

The combination of second-hand and technologies such as electronic chips allows luxury brands to extend their customer relations far beyond the usual boundaries. A Chanel bag sold in Paris could end up in Lagos or Seoul a few months later. With an NFC or RFID chip, the luxury house can identify where the product is circulating, even without being physically present, and can establish initial contact with a buyer in an uncovered region. Customer relations become virtually unlimited.