Impact of digital resale platforms on brand new or second-hand luxury goods purchase intentions among U.S. Gen Z consumers

Abstract

ABSTRACT The global sharing economy trend emphasises consumers’ environmentally conscious lifestyle manifested in the contemporary marketplace, such as digital resale platforms. This paper aims to reveal the Gen Z consumers’ purchase intention of brand new or second-hand luxury goods via various retail channels. This study purposively adopted the sample of middle-class Gen Z consumers to forecast the future of the evolving luxury resale industry. We obtained 452 usable responses using an online survey. Second-hand luxury goods owners exhibited greater purchase intention of the luxury goods via digital resale platforms than non-luxury owners and brand-new luxury owners. The findings offer empirical evidence to academia to broaden the perspective on personal luxury goods consumption behaviour. The present study also contributes to the brand-new and second-hand luxury goods industry to better target Gen Z consumers with preferred retail platforms, which also supports the luxury brand managers’ decision-making on retail channel optimisation and brand management strategies.