Elsevier

Journal of Business Research

Volume 116, August 2020, Pages 474-481
Journal of Business Research

Selling second-hand luxury: Empowerment and enactment of social roles

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.059Get rights and content

Abstract

Consumption of luxury goods is morphing into a diverse proposition where consumers are actively adopting new roles: besides buyers and users, they are sometimes becoming sellers of luxury branded products. This paper examines meanings and values attached to the process of selling luxury goods. To investigate this issue, eighteen women who had previously sold luxury branded items were interviewed. The findings demonstrated that the act of selling luxury goods challenges and shapes conventional meanings attached to luxury: Firstly, there is an alteration to the symbolic value of the item. The process around selling strips luxury items down to the object of a financial transaction hereby empowering the consumer. Secondly, consumers who sell luxury items engender change in their social role. For some, the act of selling used luxury items enabled a perceived higher social status, and for others it contributed to the boosting of their role as a sustainable consumer.

Introduction

The second-hand luxury market is in vogue; in particular, the personal luxury goods market is developing, attracting younger generations of consumers. Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG, 2019) True Luxury Consumer report estimates the second-hand personal luxury market at over 20 billion Euros, underpinning an annual growth of 12%, especially in Europe. The fast development of online channels – peer-to-peer marketplaces, hosted apps dedicated to second-hand and specialized platforms – confer worldwide visibility to pre-owned luxury goods; four out of five participants on the second-hand luxury market get informed and trade online (BCG, 2019). The growth of the second-hand luxury market is influenced by shifting attitudes and renewed acceptability related to wearing and owning previously used goods (e.g. Ferraro et al., 2016, Beard, 2008). It has also become a way of embracing sustainability (Carrigan, Moraes, & McEachern, 2013), finding rare and unique pieces (Cervellon et al., 2012, Turunen and Leipämaa-Leskinen, 2015), and accessing luxury brands which would normally be out of reach financially (Amatulli, Pino, De Angelis, & Cascio, 2018).

The growth of the second-hand luxury market has steadily raised interest among academic researchers over the last years; research has focused on understanding the motivations of consumers of second-hand and vintage luxury (Amatulli et al., 2018, Cervellon et al., 2012, Kessous and Valette-Florence, 2019) and the meaning attached to pre-used luxury goods (Turunen & Leipämaa-Leskinen, 2015). The studies show how second-hand luxury purchasers are driven by functional, psychological and emotional as well as symbolic determinants. Second-hand luxury goods, in equal measure to brand-new luxury, might be used as a basis for self-extension and self-representation (Belk, 1988).

This far, research has focused on consumers as purchasers of pre-owned luxury, and has neglected an important actor on the market: the sellers. Yet, the particularity of the second-hand market is that it operates out with the locus of control of luxury brands (in most cases), and is driven by the disposal of pre-owned goods. Sourcing is a key factor of success for second-hand luxury intermediaries. The second-hand market involves transactions between purchasers and sellers, hence the word “second-hand consumers” which covers multiple realities. To contribute to the existing luxury literature, we aim to understand luxury sellers’ behaviour. This research investigates how consumers selling pre-owned luxury artefacts construct the personal and social value attached to selling luxury goods. We argue in our paper that second-hand luxury sellers are changing the conventional luxury market’s power-dynamics: besides transforming sacred items with a personal meaning into profane goods sold for money, selling luxury alters the symbolic and personal value of the product. Furthermore, it is not within the sole remit of luxury companies to create and manage consumer status on the first-hand market (Dion & Borraz, 2017), but increasingly, the seller-purchaser interactions on the second-hand market affect consumers’ social role and perceived social value of luxury goods. Status, the admiration and respect sought after by many luxury consumers, might be gained in an unconventional way, through selling.

Building understanding about sellers’ consumer behaviour is valuable for luxury brands, as disposal activities such as selling are closely associated with purchasing new products (Cruz-Cárdenas & Arévalo-Chávez, 2018). In addition, consumers who sell, play a crucial role in shaping the perceived symbolic and financial value of luxury branded products. The price records that several Hermès bags have reached on the second-hand market influence significantly the brand value, as Hermès bags are perceived as an investment. Sellers also contribute to the democratization and accessibility of luxury at a broader level. The more attractive and efficient the second-hand market becomes, the more it plays a role and affects those who buy the brand-new luxury items (Chu and Liao, 2010, Liao and Chu, 2013).

The following sections define the key concepts of the paper and review previous academic research on perceived personal and social value of luxury consumption. The research methodology and findings are presented in sections three and four. Finally, we discuss our contribution to the luxury literature, and suggest the managerial implications for luxury brands and second-hand intermediaries yielded by this research.

Section snippets

Defining second-hand luxury

Second-hand luxury is defined through the characteristics of the products transacted: second-hand luxury products are previously owned, generally used, luxury branded items (Turunen & Leipämaa-Leskinen, 2015) that are sold on alternative – “secondary” – channels. Thus, the transactions often lack the experiential facets offered through conventional luxury channels (Cervellon & Vigreux, 2018). The price of those goods is usually lower than when purchased first-hand in the designated luxury

Methodology

Women were recruited via Facebook buy and sell groups, second-hand platforms (when direct messaging was possible e.g. LeBonCoin and Vinted) and through personal relationships. They were screened on a number of criteria. Stores and professional resellers whose reselling is the main professional activity were excluded. Participants selected were reselling personal items that had not routinely been sourced initially for resale and had mainly been purchased for self-use. Women were selected, as

Findings and discussion

All our informants engaged in both luxury purchase and resell activities regularly. Yet, the focus of the analysis is the reselling activity of our respondents and the meaning they attach to selling luxury goods. Thus, luxury purchases are discussed in the light of their planned or non-planned disposal or selling, and the meaning that the respondents attach to them and to the activity itself. On this basis, five themes emerged from the analysis and were grouped along two dimensions that

Conclusion and implications

Our findings demonstrate that selling luxury goods brings value to the sellers in a unique way, related to both the nature of the good and the nature of the activity. First, there is an alteration of the personal value of luxury consumption for sellers. Luxury goods have a strong resonance to the owner, based on the emotional bond and the hedonic experience derived from the purchase and usage of the good. The process of disposing through selling entails erasing personal meaning and memories,

Linda Lisa Maria Turunen is a Postdoctoral researcher at Centre for Consumer Society Research, University of Helsinki. Her research interests and specialization lie in brand management and consumer behaviour, particularly in the context of luxury fashion brands and perceived luxuriousness, second-hand luxury markets, fashion and sustainability. She has published in leading brand management journals, contributed to book chapters and popularized her research through the national press.

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    Linda Lisa Maria Turunen is a Postdoctoral researcher at Centre for Consumer Society Research, University of Helsinki. Her research interests and specialization lie in brand management and consumer behaviour, particularly in the context of luxury fashion brands and perceived luxuriousness, second-hand luxury markets, fashion and sustainability. She has published in leading brand management journals, contributed to book chapters and popularized her research through the national press.

    Marie-Cécile Cervellon is a Professor of Marketing at EDHEC Business School with a teaching expertise in brand management and luxury marketing. Her research aims at understanding current trends of consumption such as second-hand, local, ethical and online consumption, in hedonic industries (luxury; perfume & cosmetics; fine food; wine & spirits). It is published in major international journals, such as MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Business Research, or International Journal of Research in Marketing. She has been quoted in Newsweek, The Financial Times, and New York Times among other press outlets. Marie-Cécile holds a PhD from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

    Lindsey Drylie Carey is a Senior Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour and Research Methods and also leads on international development of partnerships across the Glasgow School for Business and Society. Her teaching expertise lies within the discipline of Marketing and she teaches at Undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral levels. She is actively involved in research in the area of consumer behaviour and sustainability particularly looking at the context of organic food and beauty products, luxury and ethical fashion. She has presented on these topics at conferences and published in peer reviewed academic journals. She is also an external examiner, a reviewer for academic journals, member of the scientific committee of a research methods conference and she is called upon to comment on consumer and retail issues within the national press as she is currently the consumer expert for the Mail on Sunday (Scotland) and has been quoted in the New York Times.

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    The authors contributed equally to the manuscript.

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