Luxury shoppers are placing less emphasis on high-end retail and putting more of their money on pre-owned products. The pre-owned market has been found to be expanding in terms of sales and of prevalence, even among consumers who seek luxury.
Alexis Clarbour, director of pre-owned luxury product website Portero.com, spoke to Business Insider about the changes in consumption patterns and spending habits among luxury shoppers. "There's been a major shift here over the last four to five years where people really understand value in a different way," Clarbour explained.
She noted how her customers are looking at the advantages of reselling items after understanding the value of products beyond their original purchase. However, luxury shoppers do not merely choose thrift-store bargains. Rather, they still choose genuine luxury- for instance, Portero’s average sale price is at $2,000 while the most sought-after brand is Hermès.
Luxury shoppers have also taken an interest to vintage and pre-owned watches. "For the same reason a consumer chooses to buy a certified pre-owned car, they also desire to purchase a certified pre-owned watch since it's a smarter, more financially beneficial way of buying luxury," said Hamilton Powell, founder of website Crown & Caliber, a site dedicated to luxury vintage and pre-owned watches.
Furthermore, these luxury shoppers can easily educate themselves about the brands’ and items’ value using the information readily available online. Customers can now easily understand the wroth of their shoes, handbags and watches, thereby aiming for a higher value for their money within the luxury goods industry.
"The whole ecosystem is going through a lot of change," Forerunner founder Kirsten Green shared. "A lot of sneaker-buying was happening in malls. And people's shopping patterns are changing away from malls."
The expansion of the pre-owned market has also been gradually getting rid of luxury shoppers’ doubts over fake products.
Numerous luxury consignment sites, including Portero and Crown & Caliber, provide 100% guarantees on authenticity of their items. According to Clarbour, if they were selling fake goods to luxury shoppers for the past decade, they would have been put out of business already.
