Secondhand luxury goods have boomed online over the last few years, going from a corner of the internet to a $50bn sector last year, covering just over 10 per cent of the total luxury market.
Most of the growth in the resale market has been driven by gen Z shoppers looking for unique, economical and sustainable buys.
“Pre-loved is really trending amongst Gen Z,” Ebay’s Global mangager of Luxury, Mari Corella, said. “[They] come to us.”
According to Realreal’s latest report, the average order value of a Gen Z shopper went up nearly 20 per cent last year, despite a broad slowdown in the primary luxury market.
Spending by Gen Z (and the even younger Generation Alpha), is expected to make up a third of the luxury market through 2030 and younger generations are expected to be the biggest buyers of luxury by 2030, representing 80 per cent of global purchases, according a McKinsey report.
Saving money (and maybe the world)
The two key factors driving Gen Z’s investment into second-hand goods are the desire to save money and a trend towards sustainability, Corella explained.
“[Pre-loved] is becoming more prominent now with inflation and the financial concerns people are having… shopping sustainably and saving money [is] a win-win situation,” Corella said.
“Nobody is saving the world by buying a used Rolex watch… [But] by having a used Rolex watch, you’re saving yourself from buying five [cheaper] watches that are going to break or that that don’t have a resale value,” she added.
According to a recent survey, around nine-tenths of Gen Z consider sustainability to be very important or somewhat important when buying pre-owned goods, while two-thirds said the main reason for buying pre-loved was to save money.
This trend can be seen across all levels of the reselling markets, with thrift shops also reporting a huge boost in demand from Gen Z.
But for luxury items, a third trend is key to understand the huge boost from young shoppers: social media.
Peer pressure
Pressure to stay in line with constantly-evolving online trends seen on social media, which can dramatically change even over the course of a few weeks, have crucially pushed younger shoppers towards reselling sites.
Sites like Tiktok and Instagram are saturated with outfit-of-the-day videos, shopping hauls, and sponsored brand content – with pieces more often than not linked in the video.
Balancing this pressure with high rents, grocery bills and student loans has led luxury hunters to second-hand.
“With social media, there’s a lot of pressure to have a certain aesthetic or to be in tune with a certain brand,” Corella said.
This, somewhat impossibly, also comes alongside a pressure to have a “unique look”, she added.
“A recent study showed that 45 per cent [of Gen Z] admit that societal pressures drive them to make new purchases in fashion,” Corella said.
Reselling sites, however, regularly offer goods at around 50 per cent of their retail price, and sometimes up to 90 per cent.
“These luxury goods are at an incredible value… not everybody has the opportunity to travel to Japan and spend £3000 to go and save £200 on a Louis Vuitton handbag,” Corella said.
Technology has almost completely broken these barriers down: now, you can search for a deal from the comfort of your bedroom.