“I like to buy pre-owned luxury fashion products”: Understanding online second-hand luxury fashion shopping motivations and perceived value of young adult consumers

The second-hand luxury fashion market has continued to gain popularity in the past decade. Many luxury fashion retailers have been pursuing ways to get involved in the second-hand goods market. However, little is known about what drives consumers to shop at online second-hand luxury fashion stores. This study applied the uses and gratification and mental accounting theory to develop a theoretical framework investigating young adult consumers’ motivations and the perceived value that lead to their willingness to recommend and purchase intentions toward online second-hand luxury fashion retailers. This study collected data via an online survey and analyzed 190 samples to test hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that critical and fashion motivations positively influence perceived value for shopping at online second-hand luxury fashion retailers among young adult consumers. The perceived value significantly influences young adult consumers’ willingness to recommend and purchase intentions. The results reveal that fashion motivation indirectly influences willingness to recommend and purchase intentions via perceived value. The findings provide empirical evidence of the importance of perceived value for young adult second-hand luxury shoppers. Managerial implications offer insights on how to appeal to these consumers to recommend and purchase second-hand luxury fashion products from online retailers.