It is to no surprise that the shopping experience has evolved greatly over the past few decades. Luxury shopping used to entail in store purchases facilitated by highly trained clerks whose jobs were to curate a shopping experience tailored specifically to you. But for younger generations today, this is no longer a point of appeal. Instead, they are ditching the invasive and overly assisted process of in-store purchasing and resorting to resale platforms for a more self-determined, self-regulated, and most importantly, more cost efficient alternative.

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Over the past few years resale platforms have been on the rise, and for good reason. With platforms such as Rebag and The Real Real establishing a market for a reputable and reliable resale experience, consumers are quickly realizing that quality does not always need to come with a hefty price tag. If we’re being honest here, your brand new Gucci Saddle Bag is going to suffer a few scuffs and scratches anyways, so why pay more trying to avoid the inevitable? Styles go in and out, trends die out, and new ones emerge, it simply does not make sense to be paying such high price points for temporary satisfaction. 

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Aside from the cost benefits of resale, it also offers one of a kind appeal, a selling point that regular retail suppliers simply cannot compete with. While older generations valued the guidance and advice of in-store professionals to direct their shopping experience, younger generations are no longer relying so heavily on third party opinions. Young shoppers today are self-confident in their individual sense of style; they know exactly what they want. Resale gives consumers the power to customize their own experience and find unique pieces that fit their personal style.

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While larger resale platforms have gained success, the smaller resale market is also on the rise. Nowadays, you can find handfuls of highly followed and highly trusted resale Instagram accounts offering quality vintage designer pieces to their tens of thousands of followers. An example of this, and one of my personal favorites, is an account called @TheRogueSupplier, a UK based Instagram shop that boasts some of the trendiest vintage designer bags. Accounts such as these merge the worlds of social media and retail, only further facilitating the departure from in-store purchasing.  

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Reflecting on trends that have occurred, I predict the resale market will only continue to flourish. In the last decade, the fashion-forward crave innovation, personalization, and individuality which has been at the forefront of the entire resale industry.