The second-hand fashion market has experienced major and accelerated growth in recent years. The increase in demand for beautiful second-hand items has been accompanied by the creation of multiple specialized resale sites: Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Rebelle, Joli Closet, Etsy, Ebay, and many others! All these platforms, and the new ones that emerge every day, are opportunities for a professional second-hand fashion retailer to expand their potential customer base and multiply sales exponentially.
How can you capitalise on these different sales channels to increase your revenues, but without wasting time? This is what we are going to see together, with a particular focus on the resale market for luxury and premium fashion items.
Whether you are a professional second hand retailer, or simply a private individual looking to clear out your wardrobe, you must have wondered what is the most efficient way to clear your stock of items as quickly as possible?
The high demand for second-hand fashion products has given rise to a number of specialised players that act as a bridge between second-hand buyers and retailers: fashion resale marketplaces.
The names that immediately come to mind for European consumers are Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, Ebay, which are now world-renowned behemoths. But the market has become much more competitive in recent years, and professional retailers are faced with many choices when deciding to put their items up for sale.
In particular, the increased global demand for luxury second-hand items has seen the emergence of new platforms specialising in luxury and premium fashion. Each seeks to differentiate itself through a specialised catalogue and customer service that is ever closer to the first-hand luxury experience.
Here is a list of the biggest ones in Europe, where you must sell on as a luxury fashion professional reseller:
No need to introduce it! Launched in France in 2009, it is THE marketplace for all high-end fashion items. The prerequisite for pros: competitive prices, complete descriptions and quality photos to stand out from the private sellers. Sellers can submit items for sale on the site, which will then be reviewed by the Vestiaire Collective team before being put up for sale.
Rebelle is a second-hand fashion resale platform based in Germany, focusing on the resale of high-end and luxury fashion items for women. The platform was founded in 2013 and has since gained a strong presence in Europe, with offices in Germany, France and the UK.
Joli Closet is a French luxury goods resale platform founded in 2012. The platform specialises in the resale of luxury goods. The platform is particularly popular in France, but it is also available to sellers and buyers in other European countries.
The Vintage Bar (recently acquired by Miinto) is a Spanish platform for the resale of luxury vintage items created in 2016. The platform specialises in the resale of vintage items from luxury brands.
Etsy is an American online retail platform that focuses on handmade products, creative supplies and vintage items. The platform is known as an online marketplace for independent designers, but it also has a section for vintage fashion items.
Ebay is an American online retail platform that allows individuals and businesses to sell a wide range of products, including luxury second-hand fashion items. Although Ebay does not specialise in vintage or luxury second-hand fashion like some other platforms, there is a high demand for these types of items on the site. The platform also offers tools and resources to help sellers optimise their sales, including advice on item descriptions and pricing strategies.
Catawiki is an online auction platform based in the Netherlands, which offers auctions for a variety of collectibles, including vintage and second-hand clothing and accessories. Items offered for sale on Catawiki are reviewed by experts before being put up for sale, which ensures the authenticity of the items sold.
For more details, read our article on resale luxury marketplaces.
As a professional seller of second-hand luxury fashion, you know how important the relationship of trust you have with your customers is. You are known for your expertise in authentication and your eye for the selection of products on offer. What you need is time, but also visibility to make yourself known to new customers.
And that's what marketplaces are for! They are showcases for buyers, providing easy access to a global customer base. And you can use this visibility to build a loyal customer base.
There is a natural tendency to think that platforms make resellers anonymous, because all the products are mixed into a single catalog, but on 99% of them, your name will be put forward, sometimes also your logo, and you will have a dedicated space with your entire catalog.
All customers will be able to follow you on every platform to get access to your new products, but not only: they will also find you on social networks, especially on Instagram, to get a preview of your new pieces. If they have had a positive first purchase experience, most of these customers will prefer your catalog for their next orders, and many will go directly through your website or your page on the networks because they will no longer need a trusted third party.
Second-hand marketplaces are therefore an excellent way of gaining an international clientele at a lower cost, avoiding the very high marketing acquisition costs that you would have to pay if you wanted to go and find this clientele yourself.
The high traffic on second-hand marketplaces is a major growth lever for your sales. You benefit from the daily passage of millions of consumers looking for the product of their dreams. It is therefore natural that putting your catalog online on different sites at the same time is an opportunity to double, triple or even more your revenues. It's mathematics, the more you are present online, the more you increase your chances of selling your products! We'll come back to how Oly's technology can allow you to put your catalog online on several sales channels at the same time in just a few clicks.
To maximise your conversion rate, it is also necessary to optimise your product pages. The more precise, clear and good quality your descriptions, fields and photos are, the more you can increase your conversion rate. On the one hand, you will gain the trust of potential buyers and avoid many questions, on the other hand, your products will come up in customer searches (via filters or via the search bar). Here are a few points of attention to optimise your product pages.
Selling on multiple platforms maximises your income, but it takes a lot of time to get on each platform.
We know this because we have conducted dozens of interviews with resale professionals and have estimated that it takes each seller between 5 and 10 minutes just to copy and paste a product descritptions from one site to another.
To avoid resellers having to do these tasks manually, which is often a source of errors, Oly has developed a technology that automates the simultaneous listing of products on different second-hand platforms, and synchronize your inventory when you sell a product on one channel. We connect automatically your website (Shopify, WooCommerce for Wordpress...) to Vestiaire Collective, Rebelle, Joli Closet, The Vintage Bar, and more resale marketplaces.
Oly is a platform that allows you to centralise your inventory in one place so that you only have to post it and update it once. You fill in all the information about your product required by the marketplaces on the Oly interface and you can then publish it on the platforms in a few clicks.
We have developed and designed this solution to save you valuable time, which you can spend on sourcing your products rather than on laborious tasks. Because we also know that the more time you have, the more products you have, and the more sales you have.
And the circle is complete :)
All you have to do is get started: create your accounts on the marketplaces and test them!
For the rest, we will be happy to discuss your needs, and give you a demo of our platform.
You can contact us directly here.
