Fast Luxury and Its Impacts

Meanwhile, on the supply side, the expansion of the resale market provides more affordable options for younger shoppers, ultimately increasing the circulation of luxury goods and driving demand for authentication services. Brands and retailers can also utilize the resale market to recapture profit margins on secondary sales.

This means that while individual ownership periods may be shorter, the resale market extends the lifespan of luxury products significantly. By reselling items multiple times, each product enjoys a longer lifetime than it might have had if it were simply discarded or left unused in a closet.

In the retail space, we identify resale as a major beneficiary of the Fast Luxury trend, with adjacent opportunities occurring in areas such as authentication.. It is fascinating to dive into the technologies that support the whole process, especially authentication. Some of the technologies currently used to combat counterfeiting in the luxury market include RFID (radio-frequency identification), NFC (near-field communication), blockchain, machine learning algorithms and AI (artificial intelligence). Looking ahead, we see potential for DNA-based authentication, which involves encoding unique DNA markers into luxury products during the manufacturing process, and advanced biometrics, such as fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, to authenticate consumers and to prevent unauthorized access or counterfeit replication.

Read more about “Fast Luxury” here and look out for our in-depth Market Navigator report on global luxury goods retailing, publishing soon.