How Technological Breakthroughs Are Unlocking the Multi-Billion-Dollar Secondhand Luxury Market for Brands

by Jamie Hall, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer, Pentatonic

Over the last decade, resale has quietly become one of the fastest-growing movements in global commerce. Younger consumers, already fluent in trading, renting, swapping, and flipping, are not only driven by value or access, but increasingly by a desire to make responsible, sustainable choices. They see ownership as fluid, value as dynamic, and recognise that a high-quality product need not gather dust in cupboards or worse, occupy a landfill after one use-cycle. In this context, repair and resale align with their worldview: why should a perfectly good product have a single life?

This shift isn’t a fad; it is becoming embedded in behaviour. Anyone who has spent time in sneakers, streetwear, watches, handbags, or high jewellery knows this culture well — a box-fresh pair of rare Jordans, a Rolex Daytona, a Hermès Birkin. These aren’t just owned—they circulate, appreciate, and function as part of an economy.

According to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group, the secondhand luxury market is now estimated at $210–220 billion USD, growing three times faster than traditional retail and projected to reach $320–360 billion USD by 2030. Yet, despite booming demand, much of the traditional luxury sector still hesitates to embrace the resale market. The objections are familiar: brand equity risk, counterfeit anxiety, logistical complexity, lack of data, and cultural resistance to “used luxury.” In short, consumers have moved. Markets have moved. But many brands have not. And that gap represents one of the largest untapped value pools in modern luxury - a value pool that technology is finally making possible to capture.

Where Luxury Resale Already Thrives And Why These Markets Prove Prestige Is Not Diluted

The strongest argument for resale isn’t simply sustainability. It is value and growth. Several luxury categories already behave like regulated asset classes: transparent pricing, global liquidity, established trading platforms, and increasingly, investor participation treating these goods as durable financial assets.

In luxury watches, the pre-owned segment is surging. The report from Grand View Research on the global pre-owned luxury watch market estimated $24–26bn USD in 2023–2024, and is forecast to reach $45–60bn USD by 2030–2033, growing around 9–10% annually. Models like the Rolex Submariner, Patek Philippe Nautilus, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak regularly trade at 200% or more of retail price. Investors now treat some references with the same discipline they apply to equities.

Handbags and leather goods show similar dynamics. For icons from houses such as Hermès or Chanel, resale pricing often behaves like a secondary MSRP. These products don’t lose prestige when they enter a second life, in many cases, the secondary market cements their status and reinforces desirability.

In jewellery, certain brands demonstrate exceptional resilience. Pieces from leading maisons frequently retain 74–86% of their original retail value, according to multiple resale analyses from platforms such as Fashionphile and The RealReal. Cartier “Love” bracelets are a textbook example. Originally priced around $250 USD in the early 1970s, they now regularly resell for over $6,000 USD on established secondary markets. The right iconography, craftsmanship and brand narrative can turn jewellery into a long-term store of value, and in some cases, into an appreciating collectable asset.

Then there is gold, the blueprint for timelessness. Nearly 90% of all gold ever mined remains in circulation. It is infinitely recyclable without losing purity, carries zero stigma regardless of age, and meets roughly 30% of annual global demand through recycling. Gold demonstrates that circularity and prestige coexist naturally.

But here’s the caveat: gold is a material, and peer-to-peer resale is decentralised. These markets thrive, but they give brands no control, no visibility, and no share of the value created. To capture that value, luxury houses must own their secondary markets.

Resale as Brand Strength

Some sectors have already shown that when resale is managed scientifically and with brand-led standards, it enhances prestige rather than diluting it.

In luxury watches, Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programmes offer authentication, guarantees and brand-aligned pricing. Resale becomes brand-first, not platform-first.

In automotive, brands such as Porsche and Ferrari have owned their secondary markets for decades. They manage depreciation curves, ensure provenance and monetise pre-owned products without sacrificing exclusivity.

These examples challenge the outdated fear that resale erodes luxury positioning. In reality, when brands set the rules, resale reinforces luxury codes and deepens customer engagement.

Why Many Luxury Brands Still Hesitate And Why That Is Changing Quickly

Despite the upside, many fashion and leather goods houses remain cautious. Leaders often raise concerns such as:

•     “It will dilute our brand.”

•     “It will validate counterfeit markets.”

•     “We don’t have the data to manage quality and resale value.”

•     “We don’t have the operational infrastructure.”

•     “It won’t scale profitably.”

•     “We’ll lose control of customer relationships.”

Increasingly, another strategic concern has emerged: by delaying, brands risk ceding billions in profit pools to third parties such as StockX, eBay, Vestiaire Collective, and Chrono24. Early movers will cement market power and shape customer expectations. This is a rare moment in luxury—the timing is urgent and the opportunity unusually large.

The Turning Point: Technology Has Made Resale a First-Class Channel

Technological advancement, particularly in AI, computer vision, and modular commerce infrastructure, has removed many of the structural barriers that once made resale operationally difficult or reputationally risky. What previously required large authentication teams, specialised logistics, and bespoke valuation processes can now be executed with a high degree of automation and accuracy.

Today, several technology providers, including Pentatonic with its multi-commerce platform, illustrate how these systems work in practice. The point is not the tool itself, but what the technology enables: a more standardised, transparent, and scalable resale ecosystem for brands and consumers alike.

Solving for authenticity

AI-driven authentication has become central to modern resale. Advanced computer vision systems can now identify, grade, and price products with accuracy levels above 99%, whether captured via compact in-store kiosks or through a customer’s smartphone at home.

This capability matters because counterfeit sophistication has outpaced traditional manual methods. Even seasoned authenticators encounter replicas that bypass conventional checks. AI reduces subjectivity by providing consistent, tamper-proof verification and can automatically route items according to brand-defined rules, such as repair, resale, refurbishment, or rejection if standards are not met.

Eliminating infrastructure costs

The technology from Pentatonic enables both in-store (via state-of-the-art kiosks) and at-home mobile capture for mail-in returns, each providing instant, simple value recovery for consumers. Customers can capture an item at home to trigger a trade-in or credit, or use a compact in-store kiosk for a guided journey. No retrofitting, logistics overhaul, or complex returns architecture is required.

Automating Pricing and Valuation

Pentatonic’s real-time dynamic pricing engines use marketplace data, computer-vision-driven condition assessment and digital twin models to generate accurate resale values instantly. This removes manual bottlenecks, dependencies on already stretched retail and operational staff, and ensures fairness and brand alignment.

Scaling Resale Profitably

Automation is increasingly embedded throughout the resale workflow—from sorting and grading to routing items toward resale, repair, upcycling, or recycling. With event-based and modular architectures, secondhand operations no longer need to function as high-cost, labour-intensive environments. Instead, automation improves speed, accuracy, and unit economics, making recommerce scalable for both large and mid-sized brands.

Retaining data and the customer relationship

A critical advantage of brand-led resale models is data ownership. When lifecycle, condition, and customer data remain with the brand, resale becomes a direct extension of the brand relationship rather than an outsourced experience.

Case studies from 2024 involving stores participating in trade-in programmes, including Pentatonic’s multi-commerce initiative, show that in regions offering both in-store and mail-in options, 85% of customers chose to return items in person. This indicates a strong consumer preference for brand-led resale experiences and highlights resale’s potential to increase store visitation and engagement.

In short: resale ceases to be a liability. It becomes a strategic asset.

The New Gold Rush for Luxury Brands

Luxury has always relied on materials designed to endure: leather, steel, diamonds, and gold. Yet the industry has often treated these durable goods as though they were single-use. Consumers, especially those driven by values, sustainability, and long-term thinking, already understand that great products deserve multiple lives.

Now, technology pioneered by companies like Pentatonic gives brands the confidence, control, and commercial rationale to participate in that world. And just like gold, the luxury products that thrive over time will be the ones that circulate, accruing value, story, and significance with each life.

The brands that recognise this and adopt the tools that make it possible will not just protect their equity. They will reclaim and monetise the billions in value that have been sitting in plain sight. The secondhand gold rush has already begun. And now, for the first time, luxury brands have the tools to claim their share.

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About the Author

Jamie Hall

Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer

Pentatonic

As Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Jamie directs the integration of customer experience with multi-commerce principles, ensuring that multi-commerce is embedded across the platform, partnerships, and programs. He brings invaluable insights from his years in senior leadership roles at Nike and Levi’s, where he developed extensive knowledge of product design, brand communications, marketing operations, and customer service innovation.

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