Vestiaire Collective is part of a new breed of pureplay online high-end fashion sellers that are, in essence, marketplaces. What sets Vestiaire apart is that it is almost entirely a purveyor of second-hand fashion – and is a subscription based ‘members club’.
Launched in Paris in October 2009, the retailer has more than 7m members, across 50 countries, with offices in Paris, London, New York, Milan, Berlin and Hong Kong. More than 30,000 new items are submitted by its community of sellers every week, which enables buyers to access around 3,500 fashion pieces a day.
The pre-owned fashion sector has experienced rapid growth over the past three years with a further acceleration during the pandemic. This has been predominantly driven by younger consumers’ increased focus on sustainability, and a growing trend for social shopping and online communities.
UK Traffic to Vestiaire
And Vestiaire’s traffic backs this up, with UK traffic growing strongly even post-pandemic – seeing a trend-breaking 22% growth in 2022. According to Statista, 4% of UK second-hand apparel online shop users say they like Vestiaire Collective, while 3% of second-hand apparel online shop users in the UK use the site. That means, of the 22% who know the brand, 14% use them.
The site trades on reselling luxury and high-end fashion and has managed to tap into not only the sustainability mores of its audience, but the growing reaction against fast fashion ubiquity, with a cohort of young fashion shoppers looking to buy one-off purchases of luxury items in place of multiple fast-fashion purchases.
Much of this growth comes down to increased awareness of the company, which in turn has been driven by investment in marketing and brand awareness. This has been facilitated by a €178m injection of new financing, backed by global French luxury group Kering and US investment firm Tiger Global Management.
If you would like to learn more about the state of UK fashion commerce, download our RetailX UK Fashion Sector Report 2023.
To become a Professional Seller and to start selling on Vestiaire Collective you can sign up here.
