EXPLORING THE SCOPE OF PRE OWNED LUXURY BRANDS MARKET IN INDIA AND GLOBAL

In today’s life whatever seems fashionable at the moment is what has increased demand and actually most of the things that are in fashion are probably linked with luxury proposing that the two words can be used interchangeably. Luxury can easily be defined as the expenses that beyond the expenditure of basic necessities and is not necessarily a thing that one must have for him to live (Sombart 1967). The real definition of luxury has been very subjective posing quite challenges to the marketers and the scholars since its definition tends to change with the scenarios and as time goes by. The perception of the society on the people who live on luxurious goods and services is that they are of different and this may not necessarily be the case as time being a factor that affects the definition of fashion and luxury has a role to play and actually something maybe fashionable at a moment but it is not luxurious at the moment.

However with time, when the product becomes rare in the market and hand to find, it may become luxurious since it can push it prices to increase and thereby being owned or afforded by few people which now maybe considered a luxurious stuffs. Diversification, globalization and consolidation are the common determinant factors that affect the growth of the demand or rather the market of luxurious goods and services. Globalization entails the increased exposure of the goods to the public. Additionally, consolidation entails the ownership of quite broad products of luxurious products and maybe companies. Also the luxurious goods are more of diversified and this puts a challenge to the companies offering the luxurious goods and services. This actually serves as a potential market for new upcoming industries which would like to invest in the gaps in the market.

This is also a result of the existing shift in the way with which many people today understand the value of a particular commodity differently (Boroian, 281). Many researchers have it that it is only with those in such of true luxury however much they cannot afford their original prices that will see beyond the initial original brand of purchase of the specific luxury in pursuit. This I to mean that if at all one is interested in a single purchase of a pre-owned product on eBay or even on Portero then the person will have to focus on the value of the item before and now and make a decision with respect to how the product was held up in respect to its pricing and how the current market pricing are.

Today the average sell for a Hermes brand is selling at $2200 and on the same time it happens to be the most popular brand in both Portero platforms along with other luxury brands. • Market size and forecast From the year 2008 to the year 2011, pre-owned luxury brands retail stores were seen to have a 42% rise in market stores both online as well as in the physical ones in parts of Asia and even in Europe. Asia itself turned over about 90 billion US dollars for the luxury goods and this composed only 40% of this amount from the year 2014. This $90 billion accounts for nearly half the total global pre-owned luxury goods worth. On the other hand, Africa’s consumer wealth profile has seen an improvement in the ever since the turn of the century due to the improvement in their business industry environments and to the capital investments as well.

This is estimated to be in an increasing trend to the year 2020 as seen in the graph below. 3- About luxury market India The concept of luxury has been present in several forms especially after civilization in India. It is predicted by the National Skill Development Corporation, an organization that helps to accelerate the economic development in most developing economies that by the end of the year 2022 about most people will have to stock new or pre-owned luxury goods or services (Atwal, 30). The presence of media advertisement, lavish Indian weddings, Bollywood stars and maharajas, indicates that luxury is dominating in the country. After the standardization of luxurious commodities in the 18th century, that led to the collection by Bernard Arnault, many luxury houses have been converted into more organized corporate firms that have also gone global.

For several international luxury brands, the market is still invulnerable. The laws in India have barred the international luxury companies from expanding. In ten years’ time, it is likely that the rise in the number of individuals with wealth will arise from the youths as well as young entrepreneurs who will be the main buyers of these goods and services. Luxury merchandises are the key brands in the marketplace because they grow quicker as compared projections. Luxury projects are correspondingly thriving as most of them have exceeded the expectations set by the brands (Dubois, 35). Some assets such as cars have continued with their gradual growth, surpassing challenges for four years consecutively. Nonetheless, the average rate of growth of assets was hindered by a go-slow in real estate.

Generally, there is little literature available about pre-owned goods of luxurious products purchasing and selling or on the general information about them, it is rare and actually would only be at a point of either trying to relate the consumption of luxury products and other kinds of second hand products or apply the knowledge of other kinds of pre-owned goods in relation to the pre-owned goods consumption.   However, their whereabouts can still be seen in the previous works of people like Linda and Roux and Korchia among others who have also contributed to this literature. As noted earlier, the preowned goods are those that change ownership from the first person to the next they have actually been used before by the first possessor of the goods and they are used as the secondhand goods again.

Some of the products that are sold as secondhand are of luxurious status. The preowned goods can change ownership through selling to people and actually selling entails the sale of the products at lower prices than their original cost of the goods. This study showed that the consumers of luxurious products were able to enjoy these goods services without the consideration of the characteristics that were given by the informants in relation to the symbol and the authencity of the good. This study raises an important question of whether luxurious goods transferred as second hand goods can still be considered to be luxurious and in a response to this question, this study shows that yes the second hand luxurious products can still be considered luxurious in the context that the possessors of second hand products or rather the consumers of second hand products may have even more confident in the second hand products they are purchasing.

They actually develop closer and better relationships with these luxurious products that one would think of for the brand new consumers of the products. The second hand possessors of luxury stuffs are more active and empowered by their products thereby showing that the enjoyment of the luxurious products “is co-created with the consumer(s), the luxury product, the luxury brand and the distribution channel”. (Linda, 2015) 5. About preowned luxury market online and offline Second hand markets are serve as markets just like any other kind of market where people interact both the buyers and the sellers and other kinds of stakeholders. Some stores stock goods that are only new whereas just stock the second hand goods and others stock both the used and the new and they can as well be referred to as the secondhand markets.

The sale and purchase of luxury products has been known to be on trend in quite a number of countries and continents. Most of the luxury products that are sold on offline markets however, there are some of the products that are sold on online platforms. There are various platforms online that are used to sell the second hand luxury products such as e-Bays, businessline, and confidential couture. In America, the online marketing has got the biggest share and the accessories have been the ones on the biggest market through e-retailing. Online markets have their profits increasing than for the offline markets that are obvious for exorbitant prices through intermediates. The graph below shows that the evolution of the technology has greatly pushed to the great increase in the sales or the increase of the online markets.

For example from the year 2013 the increase was about 25% and from 2016 to 2017 6. About pre-owned luxury market global (Asia Pacific- China Japan. Nevertheless, china’s demands for the pre-owned luxury goods has been seen to increase in accordance to the research done by (Zhou, 66) this also showed that these demands are brought about at a larger percentage by those middle class consumers and a big thanks is sent to the moderators of the local prices who have made it easier and affordable for the china’s consumers to shop in their domestic markets. Most of these consumers have been seen to oppose abroad shopping due to the increased exchange rated that they may incur while handling a single purchase. As a country china is expected to move its markets for pre-owned luxury goods further to a 63% in the next coming five years 2022, at real CAGR of up to 10%.

(Dubois,38) argue that, from the statistical point of view china has more clear pockets for the growth of secondary goods or in other words pre-owned goods, this is with respect to some categories that include luxuries of cars and jewelries among others. Chinas sales of luxury cars skyrocketed in the year 2017 with a growth margin of about 16%. In the world of fashion, there are some people who prefer to wear in the luxury fashion of the 1980s, 1990s or the early 2000s (Bhandari, 11). This therefore makes pre-owned luxury goods more interesting. The fact that the consumers of pre-owned goods are now aware of the prices of these pre-owned luxury goods and the Indian market is sensitive have greatly contributed to the new consumption methods of the Indians.

The consumption of second hand luxury products has been on the verge of increases for quite some time. The consumption of pre-owned goods has had an increase in the ascending trend due to the increase in the number of the online markets that are now the ruling marketers as compared to the offline markets (Meena, 1). Her aim was to recreate the experience she encountered in India. Pre-owned items had long been associated with a certain amount of shame because of several reasons. One of the reasons was far-fetched and it indicated that owners of objects attach their own spirits to objects and that they are transferred with the possession. Another myth was that second-hand items are as good as trash, while another one stated that buying pre-owned items means one’s wealth, status and class is in question (Bhandari, 10).

One of the most interesting characteristics of the Indian luxury market is that most shoppers used to travel abroad to obtain the commodities and when they consigned their items, they make beautiful and unique luxury items available to second-hand buyers. Consumers are also evolving at a faster rate than expected and are gradually catching up with the international trends. The fact that to gain a market for a product is a challengeable thing, the luxury goods are now taking advantages of these challenges to channel a better way in which they can fit into the market trying as much as possible to evade these challenges. In such a type of environment, the luxury brands have to move with caution and hope (Hood, 440).

There are two factors that made quite considerable contribution of preventing the luxury goods from realizing the potentiality of the market they would serve. First is the amount of investment that is made in the creation of awareness and environment and secondly obtaining the right products that address the challenges. Further, even as China is thought to be among the leading market by 2020 due to its increased consumption of the secondhand luxury products. Its ageing population and the growing chasm between its haves and have-nots, is throwing up tremendous challenges to its political and economic stability. With the recent slowdown in the luxury sector in China, global markets have shifted their focus to players in India. India’s luxury sector is still in its emergent phase and will have many opportunities for future expansion and diversification.

The government, too, has taken progressive steps to make the process of entering the Indian market easier. bain. de/Images/BAIN_REPORT_Global_Luxury_Report_2017. pdf Antola, Liisa Maria Orvokki. "Motivational drivers behind second-hand luxury consumption: a Qualitative Exploration of Consumption Motivations in Finland. Sombart, Werner. -C. , Carey, L. and Harms, T. (2012), “Something old, something used: determinants of women’s purchase of vintage fashion vs. second-hand fashion”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol.  India by design: The pursuit of luxury & fashion. Wiley, 2010. Atwal, Glyn, and Soumya Jain, eds.  The luxury market in India: Maharajas to masses. Springer, 2012. "The market for luxury goods: Income versus culture. " European Journal of Marketing 27. Zhou, Nan, and Russell W. Belk. "Chinese consumer readings of global and local advertising appeals.