Second-hand luxury: investigating the trade-off between exclusivity and sustainability

In recent years, second-hand luxury platforms have expanded rapidly, prompting luxury brands to reconsider their role in this evolving market. While such engagement may enhance perceptions of sustainability, it also risks diminishing exclusivity, as broader accessibility and lower prices challenge traditional status signals. Drawing on Signaling Theory, we examine how brands’ closeness to the second-hand market influences consumers’ purchase intentions for first-hand luxury goods, mediated by perceptions of sustainability and exclusivity. We show that second-hand engagement decreases perceived exclusivity but increases perceived sustainability, with tentative evidence indicating that the latter effect may outweigh the former and thus second-hand engagements may on balance increase consumers’ purchase intentions. However, we also find that these effects tend to vary with consumers’ attitudes. We thus encourage luxury brands to pursue second-hand strategies selectively, balancing sustainability and exclusivity in ways that resonate with specific audience segments.