On The Consumption Psychology Of Young People

"I saw a favorite Zhonggu Bao, and it was gone after hesitation. I fell into deep repentance. "
Wen Jie, a fan of Zhonggu Bao, is in her junior year in Chongqing. She fell in love with LV looping when she was brushing small red books a few years ago. She was attracted by the retro "taste" of Zhonggu bags and fell into the pit of second-hand luxury goods.
But now, Wen Jie feels that the popularity and popularity of second-hand luxury goods is far beyond her imagination - this is not the first time that she has missed her favorite bag because of her "slow start". There is also a situation where she has to give up even when she encounters a very rare and favorite style because "the price is too high".
Influenced by the change of national consumption concept and the upsurge of domestic luxury consumption, the second-hand luxury market with the label of "environmental protection and fashion" has turned red again in recent two years.
According to the 2021 overview of China's second-hand luxury industry released by the data research platform leopard Research Institute, the market size (in terms of sales) of China's second-hand luxury goods industry increased from 5.85 billion yuan to 17.3 billion yuan from 2016 to 2020, with an annual compound growth rate of 31.1%.
However, compared with developed countries, the proportion of the second-hand luxury market scale in the whole luxury market scale is still low. Forward looking industry research institute points out that if we take the average proportion of the second-hand luxury market as an estimate, the second-hand luxury market in China will reach a trillion yuan in the future, with huge development potential.
The imaginative market space has attracted many enterprises to layout, such as hongbrin, Jier, panghu, master Bao and other second-hand luxury e-commerce platforms. The comprehensive cross-border member e-commerce platform koala Haigou has introduced Japan's largest medieval luxury store "big black house" and online second-hand luxury trading platform reclo this year; On the eve of 618, Japan's brand off, reclo, brandear and other old brands of Zhonggu stores also collectively settled in tmall global.
Convenient and abundant second-hand luxury sales form has accelerated the prosperity of this market. More and more young consumers like Wenjie have obtained the first luxury bag in their life through the platform channel.
At the same time, the booming second-hand luxury market is also facing the problem of rampant imitation.
Although most platforms have introduced luxury identification, this industry is still an empirical work, and there is no standardized and standardized identification process. At present, there are few professional and independent appraisers in China. Previously, platforms such as vipshop and dewu have been involved in disputes over the "authenticity" of commodities.
Second hand luxury market potential and industry problems are accelerating.
　 01 popular ershe Market
Wan Zi is a luxury lover who works in Shanghai financial circle.
Out of her love for all new things, she has bought many luxury bags, jewelry and watches, etc., and her family gradually has a lot of leisure.
In the early days, meatballs tried to sell things they didn't use very well through idle fish. A more troublesome part of idle fish is that the seller should not only provide basic information of the goods, but also communicate directly with the buyer to discuss the price. The whole process is relatively cumbersome, the transaction rate is relatively low, and the experience of Meatballs is not good.
Introduced by friends, at the beginning of 2016, meatball came into contact with an online second-hand luxury trading platform - zhier, which started selling clothes and shoes, and became a non professional seller.
Different from the C2C mode of idle fish, zhier, a second-hand luxury trading platform of c2b2c, does not require the seller to communicate with the buyer about the details and price of the goods in person. Instead, it adopts the commodity consignment mode, in which only two identify, disinfect, photograph and display the received goods. When the transaction is completed, the platform also provides packaging logistics and after-sales services.
During the selling period, the seller can freely price the goods. If the buyer is allowed to negotiate, he can choose to open the bargaining function. He can only input numbers, not words. The whole process saves a lot of trouble for both parties.
"I feel very relieved by their process." According to Wan Zi's description, in addition to the identification of the authenticity of the goods, the platform will even help to clean some stains, and the whole process has exceeded expectations. But correspondingly, the platform will also extract a certain commission for the seller.
In about five years, Wan Zi witnessed the transformation of only two categories of clothing from the main recycling category to the recycling of bags, jewelry, watches, clothing and other categories.
In recent two years, meatballs began to focus on resale of second-hand luxury bags. She clearly felt that the whole second-hand luxury market was on the rise again. Basically, her bags hanging on only two can be sold in a week, and the speed of changing hands is significantly improved compared with previous years.
The transaction that impressed her most was in April this year, when Wan Zi launched a 90% new LV Neverfull on only two platforms.
At 12:00 p.m., the buyer submitted the price and money at 12:01, and the ball agreed to negotiate and complete the transaction. The whole process took only one minute, "it's too fast, it's like a second kill." Wan Zi said excitedly. Moreover, the product received 1095 views in the process of being put on the shelves, with high popularity.
Not only that, because meatballs have kept a certain frequency on the platform and have a good sales record in the past, she has accumulated a lot of fans.
"It's obvious that the market has become hot in the last two years, and my fans have been growing steadily. Most of them are newly registered accounts within half a year," said MARUKI. Although many friends around him sell less second-hand luxury goods, they are beginning to pay attention to this market, and even register in only two to pay attention to new product information at any time.
In fact, the feeling of Meatballs represents the development of the whole second-hand luxury market to a certain extent.
Zhu taini Qi, founder and CEO of the platform, disclosed to all weather that since the outbreak of the epidemic, the second-hand luxury market has indeed witnessed a wave of growth. From the perspective of Gmv, the Gmv growth rate of the platform in recent years has been more than three times; As a result of the strategic adjustment, after only two paid more attention to luxury brands, the unit price per customer also increased significantly, from 300-500 yuan in the early stage to 1000-1500 yuan in price; Since 2020, the unit price of platform customers has been further increased to 3000 yuan, and the unit price of live broadcast channel in the station is as high as 6000-8000 yuan.
Not only the e-commerce platform, but also the chattering sound growing from the short video vent has become one of the important positions of the second-hand luxury trade.
According to the data list of feigua, in February, the top three anchors of shuoyin's second-hand shoes, hats, bags and bags were Xia Yan of Taiguhui store in Shanghai, with Gmv of 71.759 million, ranking the fifth in the overall list of Shuo Yin's shoes, hats, bags and bags; Tracy Dong Bowen, with a total of 50.279 million goods, ranked the 13th in the total list of tremolo tapes; Panghu second-hand luxury store, with goods Gmv of 30.056 million; The total Gmv carried by the three people exceeded 150 million yuan, and their strength was amazing.
In addition to the hot second-hand luxury market, the consumer side has also shown a downward trend and obvious younger trend.
According to the analysis of the current situation and development trend of China's second-hand luxury market in 2021 released by the prospective research institute, although the second-hand luxury market consumption is mainly concentrated in the first tier cities, the new first tier cities and the second tier cities, the consumption accounts for about 70% of the overall second-hand luxury market; However, with the improvement of the acceptance and consumption ability of luxury goods in the cities below the third tier, the purchase frequency of second-hand luxury goods has increased significantly.
This trend reflects that only two platforms may be more obvious. According to Zhu taini Qi, at present, more than 95% of the users of the platform are women. There is a certain overlap between buyers and sellers, but the overall overlap is not high; Most of the sellers are women aged 25 to 45 with good income conditions. The first tier and new tier cities account for 60% of the total. However, both the age and income level of buyers may be even lower. Most of them are women aged 18 to 35. The proportion of first tier and new tier cities accounts for about 50%. The proportion of buyers in third and fourth tier cities has continued to increase compared with the past few years.
"I often go to the warehouse to help deliver goods, and I will see that the delivery address on the surface list is in the third and fourth tier cities," Zhu taini Qi believes that the second-hand luxury e-commerce gives sinking users a channel to contact and feel big brand products. "Young people's first LV and Chanel can be bought through only two. I feel very happy and meaningful."
　　 02 who is the "pusher" behind it?
How did this wave of second-hand luxury goods come into being? Who is the "pushing hand" behind it?
According to Zhu taini Qi's observation, he believes that the new round of growth in the second-hand luxury market mainly comes from three reasons: first, the epidemic situation has restricted the production and sales of first-hand luxury goods, and consumer demand has shifted randomly to the second-hand luxury market; Second, the construction of infrastructure such as live broadcasting helps the platform to reach consumers better and win the trust of users; Last but not least, with the development of second-hand luxury goods, the development of quality control, identification, fulfillment of orders and back-end services are becoming mature.
"I think it's the right time, the right place, the right people and the right time." He said.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, luxury brands have repeatedly raised their commodity prices due to the rising cost of raw materials and the shortage of market supply. According to incomplete statistics, from the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 to July this year, French luxury brand chanel has raised its prices for three times in a row, and the average single increase is about 5%; Louis Vuitton, another French luxury brand, has raised its prices four times in 2020 and will continue to rise in 2021.
However, it seems that the soaring prices of luxury brands have not deterred Chinese consumers. It is common to see long queues outside LV, Chanel, Gucci and other stores in China. Some popular styles are still hard to find. Consumers need to wait for months to buy them. Some brand exclusive stores also carry out "distribution" tie-in sales.
Under the dual influence of price and supply and demand, some consumers can only focus on the second-hand luxury market.
From the perspective of the second-hand luxury platform initiatives, consumer service is also more and more important, platforms try to enhance brand power and enhance consumer trust.
Take zhier as an example. In the past few years, the platform has made great efforts in the service process and service experience of sellers. It not only provides a series of services such as identification, nursing and photographing, but also promises to be put on the shelves 72 hours after receiving the goods; In the operation side, in addition to the existing app, it also launched small programs, and even opened offline stores to strengthen the relationship with consumers“ We hope that when the buyer receives our product, his experience will be like buying a new product. " Zhu Tai Ni Qi said.
In addition, Chen silent, vice president of Yuanjing capital investment, believes that the rise of circular economy and the influence of stars and Internet celebrities are also important reasons for boosting the growth of the second-hand luxury market.
According to public information, Yuanjing capital has invested only two since 2018, and has been following the investment for three consecutive rounds so far.
Chen silent recalled that when Yuanjing capital entered the market only two years ago, the market development was not mature, and there was no formed report. The transaction volume of the whole industry was only 23 billion yuan.
"At that time, we were optimistic about the long-term efficiency improvement of this industry, and felt that it was a market with great potential." Now, three years later, Chen felt that the market was gradually getting better. "During the epidemic period, there was another wave of great benefits. Many young people began to accept the concept of circular economy and follow the stars to buy medieval clothes and bags."
According to the Research Report on the development of China's second-hand luxury goods market (hereinafter referred to as "China ershe Research Report") jointly released by YouSHE Yipai and the luxury research center of the University of foreign economic relations and trade, 41% of the consumers surveyed think that the former users, especially the key opinions * * * (including online celebrities, Internet Celebrities, etc The reviews and ratings of products left by celebrities are the most important factors affecting their purchase behavior; Online celebrities and star opinions on social media have a profound impact on the brand cognition and purchase behavior of generations y and Z, and some star street photos have also become "grass planting" sites.
Luxury market as one of the wind vane of retail industry, to some extent, its changes also attract the attention of capital. In particular, since the epidemic, many second-hand luxury enterprises have obtained capital support.
According to the incomplete statistics of all-weather science and technology, since 2020, six domestic second-hand luxury platforms have obtained financing, and some platforms have even obtained two rounds of financing, which shows the capital's confidence in this market.
　 　03 "Middleman" business
With the gradual expansion of the domestic market, the capital pays more attention to this track, and the business model of second-hand luxury goods is also frequently discussed.
Looking at the domestic second-hand luxury market, at present, there are mainly three sales modes: offline Zhonggu store, traditional e-commerce trading platform and personal channel. Among them, most offline stores buy out some classic and limited products, and then sell them for the second time; The traditional e-commerce trading platform and the emerging trading channels of live broadcast and community mostly adopt the way of consignment to engage in the resale business of second-hand luxury goods.
In particular, second-hand luxury e-commerce trading platforms are more "middlemen" businesses, and their profit models are roughly divided into two types: one is to extract a higher proportion of handling fees / service fees according to the transaction amount; and; The other is to draw a lower percentage of the service charge to match the optional services.
According to Zhu taini Qi, only two platforms adopt a fixed proportion of commission. At present, 20% of the transaction amount is taken as the Commission. Meatballs also revealed to all-weather technology that the percentage of Commission for only two has increased from 15% in the previous two years to 20% now. The minimum commission is 100 yuan / piece, and the ceiling amount is 4988 yuan / piece.
Under this "minimum guarantee" mode, the higher the price, the more cost-effective the seller will be. Even if a Hermes package with a unit price of more than 100000 yuan is sold, the platform takes only a few thousand yuan.
There are some advantages and disadvantages for Zhonggu store sales mode and platform consignment mode.
Chen silent, vice president of Yuanjing capital investment, believes that most offline Zhonggu stores are subject to store rent and operating costs, and most of them are relatively small in size, which determines that their SKU number has a certain ceiling. "In order to speed up the capital turnover efficiency, Zhonggu stores can only adopt the buyout mode and try to lower the purchase price of second-hand luxury goods."
Offline Zhonggu store is a favorite place for second-hand luxury lovers to stroll around. It allows customers to observe the quality of goods closely, and the bags are also easy to test. But the way to buy out is not friendly to the seller, whether the store can continue to get supplies is also a big problem.
The business model of the second-hand luxury e-commerce platform is relatively simple, and it basically relies on commission to maintain its operation. However, due to the fact that this mode involves several variables, i.e. industry scale / platform turnover, transaction times, the actual revenue has a certain imagination space.
Chen Mo has calculated a sum of money. China's new consumption of luxury goods is about 400-500 billion a year. Assuming that 10% (excluding the past stock) will be recycled to enter the second-hand luxury market, and the platform will draw Commission, which is still a very considerable number; In addition, different commodities may be traded for many times, and Gmv will double and commission will also increase in multiples.
"From this point of view, the platform commission model may be more light assets, turnover does not require the platform itself to provide funds; And offline Zhonggu stores are more difficult to scale, because they need to occupy the owner's funds, the capital plate determines the business scale. " Chen said silently.
At this stage, both online platforms and offline stores still need to solve a common problem - customer acquisition.
Looking at China, it is difficult to find an app or channel that is positioned at the high customer price user group of thousands or tens of thousands, and the front-end traffic is relatively scattered. In order to break through the flow ceiling, platforms and stores need to adopt diversified ways to obtain customers from various channels.
For most of the second-hand luxury e-commerce, in addition to the platform itself, they will also sell through shaking tone and Taobao live broadcast. Zhu taini Qi disclosed to all-weather science and technology that only two has set up live broadcasting rooms on platforms such as Shuo Yin, but at present, the transaction volume of direct broadcast channel accounts for less than 30% of the total Gmv; In addition, consumers can also access only two products and services through a variety of ways, such as small programs, offline stores, and on-site consultants.
On the other hand, the offline Zhonggu store is no longer limited to the branch of the store, and has begun to actively develop online. In addition to opening live broadcasting rooms, some big name Zhonggu stores have also cooperated with traditional e-commerce platforms to open online stores. The "big black house" of Japan's largest mediaeval luxury store has settled in koala, a typical representative.
Seeing that the track of second-hand luxury goods is becoming more and more lively, more and more players are playing, and the business cross between online and offline is increasing. However, in Chen's opinion, China's second-hand luxury market is still in its early stage of development. All players are trying to make the cake bigger, and the competition is not obvious.
　04      The nascent market is chaotic
Some people in the industry believe that the difficulty in the operation of the second-hand luxury market is not to make a big cake, but to maximize the interests of both sides of the transaction and maintain the long-term stability of the track.
"Genuine product protection" is always the core demand of consumers. In the survey of consumers' worries about choosing second-hand luxury goods, the results revealed by China ershe research newspaper showed that the first one was "authenticity", accounting for 41%.
The paper also pointed out that since 2017, the rate of authentic products identified by YouSHE Yipai was only more than 30%, and it has decreased year after year; By 2020, the comprehensive quality rate is 32.9%, which is nearly 5% lower than that four years ago; Second hand platforms and social platforms have become "disaster areas" for imitations. This means that it is not easy for consumers to buy genuine second-hand luxury goods at a relatively low price.
In order to enhance the trust between the platform and consumers and dispel the doubts about shopping, many second-hand luxury platforms have trained their own appraisers to reduce the rate of counterfeit goods by increasing the identification link. In addition, the platform will cooperate with China Inspection and Certification Group (hereinafter referred to as "China Inspection and certification") to carry out the second inspection of consumer suspected goods, so as to protect the interests of consumers.
However, in April this year, a Rashomon incident in which a gucci belt sold by vipshop was identified as a fake by dewu platform caused heated discussion. Vipshop insists that the belt purchasing link is clear, reliable, legal and compliant, and has passed the sampling inspection of China National Inspection and inspection Guangdong company; However, it said that the platform reviewed the identification results and still showed that the product was not authentic.
The two sides hold their own opinions, and public opinions continue to denounce it. The official of Gucci China has no opinion on this, and only guarantees that the products purchased through official channels are authentic.
Such incidents are not rare. Every time, there are always some voices on the Internet questioning the authenticity of all kinds of luxury e-commerce platforms. Even after the platform reviews, they may still be fake products.
The main reason behind this is that luxury goods identification is an empirical work, so far the industry has not formed a standardized and standardized identification process, most of which are judged by appraisers according to their personal experience.
Qiao Chunhe, President of Huixiang Business School of China Inspection and quarantine, introduced to all-weather science and technology that luxury goods appraisal on the market at present is mainly divided into photo identification and physical identification. Specifically, it is also divided into identification without report, identification and report (including traceability card and identification certificate) and judicial identification.
In the actual operation process, the identification of pictures is very simple and fast. Consumers only need to shoot the corresponding identification points of commodities to the appraisers according to the requirements. Image identification without appraisal report can be done once only for about 50 yuan in some platforms.
Among the above-mentioned kinds of identification, the physical identification that needs to issue an appraisal report is relatively rigorous. Qiao Chunhe revealed that this kind of identification is generally "back-to-back" by 2-3 appraisers, that is, the appraisers independently identify and issue the identification results without mutual interference; If the identification results of the two persons are consistent, the relevant report / Traceability card can be issued and uploaded to the system; If the appraisal results are different, the two persons will give their opinions on the controversial points, and then issue the report if they can reach an agreement through communication. If they can't reach an agreement, the third appraiser will be asked to repeat the above process.
Hao Li, an appraiser who has worked in luxury goods appraisal industry for more than 10 years, told all-weather science and technology that "it usually takes only about one minute for appraisers to judge whether a commodity is genuine or not. (cross validation by three or more quantity appraisers) is relatively small."
Hao Li laughs that such two jokes are often played in the industry. If no conclusion is given for more than 4 minutes, the conclusion is basically false; A commodity, if all appraisers can not see that it is false, then it is true.
At present, the most well-known luxury appraisal agency in China is CIQ. However, in the actual appraisal, the appraisal results of different branches of CIQ are inconsistent, which makes many consumers "flinch" to the second-hand luxury goods.
Wu Hao (pseudonym), another senior appraiser in the industry, disclosed to all-weather science and technology that CIQ's luxury appraisal work is equivalent to the "outsourcing" mode. The company does not have its own luxury appraisers, but cooperates with local institutions to complete the appraisal work.
There are two reasons: first, CIQ's business scope is very wide, and luxury appraisal is only a small part of it, which is not enough for it to employ appraisers in many places; Second, the appraiser industry started late, but the salary level of senior appraisers is relatively high, with an average monthly income of 30000 to 40000. It is difficult for the intermediate inspection institute to employ a better appraiser with the internal salary standard.
Based on this model, CIQ still checks the authenticity of luxury goods by cooperating external appraisers. If different branches cooperate with different organizations, the identification results can be understood.
Wu Hao also told all-weather science and technology that "100% of the things that we (Senior appraisers) identify as genuine products are genuine products, but 99.99% should not be a problem."
With the rapid development of the second-hand luxury market, the demand for appraisers is increasing《 China ershe research daily points out that the total number of appraisers in 2019 is about 2.3 times that in 2018, but the total number of professional appraisers in China does not exceed 50.
Although today's appraiser training is blooming everywhere, and the number of trainees is also increasing day by day, there are only a few appraisers with real strength and ability to take charge of their own affairs.
Wu Hao disclosed to all-weather science and technology that the company now has a training course for appraisers every month. The course lasts for seven days, with one session or two sessions each month. When the number of people is large, each session has 50-60 people, and when the number is less, 20-30 people. According to this calculation, the number of appraisers training in a single institution can reach hundreds of people every year, "but the proportion of personnel who can really complete the appraisal independently accounts for 1% - 3% of the total number of trainees."
Also because the second-hand luxury industry is getting more and more attention, the number of people seeking identification is increasing, and the industry chaos gradually appears.
Wu Hao said that in the past two years, the number of offline Zhonggu stores has increased greatly. Most of the time when I go shopping, I can see that the shops are clearly selling fake goods. "99% of them don't sell fake goods on purpose, but they really don't know how to identify them."; Some of the training personnel will privately accept orders for image identification, "they have no ability, all rely on the help of teachers in the group to identify, the teacher said true or false, they will tell the user."
Most of the second-hand luxury e-commerce platforms are sparing no effort to enhance consumer trust, while the frequent industrial chaos is disintegrating their hard built "fortress".
In dispelling consumer concerns, there is still a long-term war to be fought in the ershe market.
(Wan Zi, Hao Li and Wu Hao are all pseudonyms)