Statistics show that China’s personal luxury market grew 48 percent year-on-year to nearly 346 billion yuan in 2020. During the Spring Festival consumption peak season, the growth of personal luxury goods consumption also drives the second-hand luxury goods market.
Luxury consumption is heating up in Shanghai, with long lines forming in front of brand stores
In a mall in Shanghai, the reporter saw long queues in front of many luxury stores. Chinese consumers can’t go overseas to buy luxury goods because of the pandemic, but the demand is still there, so the queues have been going on since last year.
The growth of personal luxury goods consumption in China has also driven the Chinese second-hand luxury goods market. The reporter saw in a second-hand luxury goods store in Shanghai that there are many consumers in the store in the afternoon on weekdays.
The store manager told the reporter that in the past two years, as consumers’ acceptance of second-hand luxury goods has increased, in-store sales have increased substantially. Many consumers even specifically come to buy styles that have been discontinued for many years.
According to Puff, manager of a second-hand luxury store in Shanghai, the store only had 10 employees in 2018, but this year, it has expanded to 100 employees, and its sales have increased by about 10 times.
The reporter learned from another second-hand luxury goods store in Shanghai that as some luxury brands have repeatedly increased their prices in 2020, the prices of second-hand luxury goods have also risen. In the case of some popular and difficult-to-buy styles, second-hand prices may even be higher than counters.
Liu Jinyuan, the owner of a second-hand luxury store in Shanghai, said the overall sales volume of the store in 2020 will increase by about 100 percent compared to 2019, and the prices of luxury goods will increase by about 50 percent.
Some insider says the second-hand luxury market has entered a period of rapid growth in recent years. In 2019, The Real Real, an American e-commerce platform for second-hand luxury goods, was listed on Nasdaq, becoming the first e-commerce platform for second-hand luxury goods to be listed.
Compared with the European and American markets with a more developed circular economy, China’s secondary market still has a lot of room for development. Some shops sell authentic and fake products mixed, and it is difficult to trace the source of goods, which has become the main reason restricting the development of the industry.
The boom in second-hand luxury goods consumption has spawned new professions such as appraisers and valuers
The second-hand luxury goods sector in China also has a mixed bag. Some products are difficult to distinguish between true and false, and their value cannot be judged. This has given birth to a series of new professions such as appraisers, professional buyers, and valuers.
Ding Lizhao, a second-hand luxury appraiser in Shanghai, has been in business for more than six years. When the reporter met him, he was evaluating a luxury bag. He told the reporter that in order to be rigorous and objective, a product usually needs two appraisers to give the results together.
Ding told the reporter that if one wants to become a qualified appraiser, he/she must first go through training and examinations and get a certificate before he/she can work. Different vintages and different types of luxury goods have different styles. Appraisers must have a lot of knowledge behind them in order to give accurate appraisal results.
Since 2019, Ding Lizhao has clearly felt that the number of luxury goods sent to him for identification has increased exponentially.
If the price is less than 5000 yuan, 100 yuan appraisal fee, 5000 to 10000 yuan, 150 yuan appraisal fee, 10000 to 20000, 200 yuan appraisal fee, and so on. If the public price is more than 80000, it is negotiable.
With the increasing ownership of luxury goods in China, professional buyers have emerged in the second-hand luxury market. Shen Yujia is a Shanghai girl. Although she is not very old, she has been a professional buyer for nearly ten years. She told the reporter that the main job of professional buyers is to purchase luxury goods that may appreciate through various channels.
Shen told the reporter that consumers born in the 1990s and 2000s have become the main force in purchasing luxury goods, and the prosperity of the second-hand market also reflects the younger generation’s tendency to consume more circular and economical patterns.
The data shows that the current stock of luxury goods in China that can enter the second-hand market is close to one trillion yuan. Under the huge market demand, a series of new professions such as luxury appraisers, repairers, valuers, and marketing specialists have emerged. People believe that although second-hand luxury goods have broad market prospects, professionals and related training institutions are still relatively scarce, and the industry still needs to be regulated.
Li Landi, president of the Shanghai Institute of Luxury Goods, China Certification & Inspection Group, said that appraisers for bags, watches and jewelry are particularly scarce in the market. And conservators, repairers and appraisers are particularly hot and scarce in the second-hand luxury goods industry.
Source: CCTV Finance