Balenciaga enters the second hand market

Balenciaga is partnering with resale platform Reflaunt to offer a second-hand service for its products.

With a constant demand for Balenciaga products on the second-hand market, the house decided to offer this service itself.

The Kering Group brand has therefore decided to partner with Reflaunt, a white label online resale site. The partnership will offer customers a complete service. Products can be dropped off at participating Balenciaga stores, from where they will be sent to be authenticated and appraised before being photographed and listed and sold online.

This isn’t the first time Demna Gvasalia, the brand’s creative director, has shown interest in circularity. In fact, Balenciaga’s spring-summer 2021 collection was almost entirely made from repurposed or certified sustainable pieces.

Yet luxury players were initially wary of online second-hand platforms, fearing they would cannibalize sales and encourage counterfeits. But the rapid growth of the second-hand market and the durability associated with it, quickly changed ideas. Balenciaga is following in the footsteps of Gucci, which unveiled its Vault platform last year.

Second-hand luxury in China

Zhu Tainiqi, founder of the Shanghai-based second-hand luxury goods marketplace ZZER, notes that the number of consignors on his platform has increased by 40% and now has 12 million members.

“More and more people are now aware that they can sell luxury goods for a little bit of money, while buyers are noticing that they can get a good deal,” he says.

The trend indicates a significant shift in China’s $74 billion luxury sector, where the pre-owned luxury sub-segment has been slow to take off.

“China’s interest can really shake things up for some brands to think about how they’re going to handle this (resale) market and what role they’re going to play in the whole process,” comments Iris Chan, partner and head of client development at consulting firm Digital Luxury Group.

China’s pre-owned luxury market is expected to reach $30 billion by 2025, up from $8 billion in 2020, according to consulting firm iResearch.

Featured photo : © Balenciaga

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Hélène Cougot

Passionnée depuis son plus jeune âge par l’art et la mode, Hélène s’oriente vers une école de stylisme, l’Atelier Chardon-Savard à Paris, avec une option Communication. Afin d’ajouter des cordes à son arc, elle décide de compléter sa formation par un MBA en Management du Luxe et Marketing Expérientiel à l’Institut Supérieur de Gestion à Paris dont elle sort diplômée en 2020. Elle a notamment écrit des articles lifestyle et beauté pour le magazine Do it in Paris et se spécialise en rédaction d’articles concernant le luxe, l’art et la mode au sein du magazine Luxus Plus.********** [EN] Passionate about art and fashion from a young age, Hélène went to a fashion design school, Atelier Chardon-Savard in Paris, with a Communication option. In order to add more strings to her bow, she decided to complete her education with an MBA in Luxury Management and Experiential Marketing at the Institut Supérieur de Gestion in Paris from which she graduated in 2020. She has written lifestyle and beauty articles for Do it in Paris magazine and specializes in writing articles about luxury, art and fashion for Luxus Plus magazine.