Fashion Rewind: A Segmentation of Second-hand Shoppers in Luxury Fashion

The purpose of this study is to uncover to what extent economic and hedonic motivations, as well as general attitudes towards second-hand shopping influence consumers to purchase second-hand luxury fashion. Prior discussions of luxury consumption have focused on either brand-new luxury goods, or second-hand clothing in general, thus largely neglecting the emergence of markets for used luxury fashion. The data for this study was generated through an online survey questionnaire with second-hand luxury owners from the United States (N=302). This research utilized exploratory factor analysis, as well as hierarchical and K-means cluster analysis to produce three cluster segments of second-hand luxury shoppers: hedonic shoppers, high-spirited shoppers, and indifferent shoppers. Furthermore, consumers self-extension tendencies, shopping frequencies, and expenditures were analyzed to guide the assessment of the segments and allow for better understanding of the second-hand luxury consumer. This study suggests important implications for retailers and luxury brand marketers.