Pre-loved luxury goods: how and when consumers hunt for treasures
(A2025-124571)

AUTHORS

GIUSEPPE MUSARRA, University of Leeds; Karen T. Bowen, University of Leeds

ABSTRACT

Second-hand luxury refers to a piece of clothing, produced by luxury brands, that have been used before despite the age of the clothes. Given the large amount of waste the clothing industry produces, second-hand fashion shopping can be a solution to waste management. This study investigates how and when consumers’ buy second-hand luxury products. We do so by using survey of 312 participants. The results show that there is negative link between the intangibility nature of e-commerce and second-hand luxury shopping (H1). We observe that the intangibility nature of e-commerce significantly increases consumers’ concerns of product authenticity and quality (H2a-b). We find that concern of product authenticity and quality significantly reduce consumers’ second-hand shopping (H3a-b). Lastly, we observe that the positive relationship between intangibility nature of e-commerce and concern of product authenticity and quality is moderated by trust in the e-seller (H4a-b) and that the relationship between concern of product authenticity and concern of product quality with consumers’ second-hand shopping is moderated by the presence of a virtual assistant (H5a-b).