Investing in luxury brands can get you good returns
Two- thirds of a woman’s wardrobe remains inactive most of the time, and the remaining one-third is what they actually wear. Out of all the clothes, shoes, bags and accessories that stock up thousands of closets, Rs 1.5 crore are high street and luxury branded!
Luxury and high street brands have differentiated themselves by standing up for their unique style. The hardware, leather, fabric and craftsmanship used while manufacturing these products, is such that they can be used well over 10 years without any visible signs of wear and usage. But what if you one got bored after carrying them for a couple of years? Up until recently, there was no answer to this question! However, online platforms serving as a marketplace to shop and sell pre-owned luxury fashion have helped these luxury and high street fashion products realize their resale potential.
Over Rs 13,400 Crore worth of luxury fashion goods are sold in India every year and interestingly this accounts only for 40% of the total luxury fashion purchase, the remaining 60% is purchased abroad. In a country, where millions aspire to be proud owners of an authentic Gucci, Louis Vuitton and a Michael Kors, there was a lot of accessibility, affordability and accreditation on authenticity on these high worth products. Since the gap is being abridged, more than Rs 9,000 Crore of pre-owned luxury inventory is now being made accessible to a large part of the nation.
Luxury is not just about purchasing a product for its value; it means investing in an experience and being able to cherish it. Bags and accessories have always been the hottest selling category of luxury fashion and a similar pattern has also been observed in the secondary market as well. With platforms like Envoged coming up, every luxury bag, footwear, accessory or apparel is now getting a resale value attached to it and thus investing in these products is becoming easier for consumers. Also, people can now purchase high end brands sitting at home, with the guarantee that the product delivered to t hem will be 100% authentic. Not just that, the price points are now what they are comfortable with! So an LV bag which was earlier available for sale for Rs 80,000 could now be bought for Rs 20,000. Most of the products we sell are discounted in a range of 60-80%. Most of these inter- national brands seldom go on sale, as they require maintaining their brand value and exclusivity and the only way you can own an authentic luxury piece is to buy pre-owned.
More than 45% of the total products we have sold so far were purchased from smaller cities and towns like Kanpur, Pune, Agra, Indore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Saharanpur etc. For them, the questions on accessibility, authenticity & affordability are now solved with a second hand online marketplace being created! Contrary to what most of us might have thought, people in these cities not only follow their favourite luxury brands ardently, but are also updated with the latest fashion trends and collections launched by them. Other cities like Delhi, Mumbai however work differently. People in metros come with an agenda of reshuffling their luxury collection every few months, without investing again. So sellers buy, and buyers sell, thus refreshing their collection of classics without spending again!
Luxury as a category in fashion is fairly inelastic, and unlike fast fashion which changes vastly every season, luxury maintains stability in characteristic & collection. A classic Chanel, an Hermes Birkin, the Louis Vuitton Never full etc. are timeless and its every girl’s dream to possess these pieces in her wardrobe. In fact, a study by TIME suggested that investing in Birkin is a better idea than investing in gold! Simple math would very easily suggest that a parallel can be drawn with all the luxury & bridge to luxury brands as compared to the premium brands. You can buy an MK for Rs 25,000, use it for a year and sell off for half the purchase price, so it essentially cost you Rs 12,000! And now you can now invest this amount you earned as seed money for your next purchase. So believe it or not, you can now afford an MK if you are currently using Charles & Keith, a Louis Vuitton if you buy Fendinow and a Chanel if you were buying LV or Gucci. It will only need some amount of planning and you are half way there, flaunting your loved luxuries; only if you shop smart and sell smart! The author is co-founder, Envoged.com