Second-hand opportunity

According to a recent report by ThredUp, the U.S. secondhand fashion market is expected to more than triple in value in the next 10 years – from US$28 billion in 2019 to US$80 billion in 2029.

Although accounting for a relatively small sliver of total luxury sales, China’s high-end resale market is on the rise. Last year, China’s secondhand luxury market reached $2.69 billion in sales, roughly 5 percent of the total for luxury, but growing interest among younger millennial and Gen Z consumers indicates that it is poised to go from strength to strength. As Jing Daily recently noted, young Chinese consumers have prioritized buying secondhand out of a commitment to sustainability and reducing their carbon footprint, collecting hard-to-find archive pieces by top designers and brands, and mixing and matching pieces that others might not be able to easily get their hands on.

China’s nascent luxury resale market is becoming a crowded and contentious place, as established platforms such as Secoo (which sells both pre-owned and new products) and Youshe Yipai battle it out with younger startups and major tech players such as Douyin (whose users are increasingly leveraging to sell their pre-owned items) for market share. Meanwhile, international platforms like The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, and the freshly acquired Depop are also looking to China as part of their global efforts.

Etsy

Etsy’s $1.6 billion, all-cash acquisition of Depop should silence those doubts, at least for a while. The deal represents a major bet by one of e-commerce’s giants that the resale market’s dramatic rise has only gotten started. It also speaks to the growing spending power of Gen-Z; Depop has one of the youngest-skewing customer bases in the secondhand fashion market.

Mytheresa partnered with Vestiaire

The Munich-based e-tailer is the latest luxury player to seek to tap into the fast-growing resale market, with a new service to help its top clients sell pre-loved items on Vestiaire in exchange for store credit launching Wednesday.

The initial service will apply to handbags from a list of 20 luxury designers and will only be available in Europe, but the companies said they were committed to rolling out the service to a wider array of customers, product categories and brands by the end of the year.

The partnership will establish a dedicated interface for eligible MyTheresa customers. They will benefit from direct price quotes and will receive store credit as soon as the item is quality checked and authenticated, rather than waiting for it to be sold. A dedicated team is being established to support customers.

The move comes after Alexander McQueen launched a similar service with the Paris-based resale platform earlier this year. In March, the brand’s parent company, Kering acquired a 5 percent stake in the company. In 2021 March Vestiaire Collective announced a new funding round. The company has raised $216 million, or €178 million — it has reached a valuation above $1 billion, making it a unicorn. French fashion and luxury group Kering is leading the round with Tiger Global Management. Kering now owns 5% of Vestiaire Collective.