TikTok Shop, TikTok’s social commerce marketplace, is launching a second-hand luxury goods category in the UK, bringing it into closer competition with RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark and Mercari, among others. The offer has already been on TikTok Shop US for over six months.
The new category allows UK customers to buy high-quality second-hand clothing, designer handbags and other accessories, all without leaving the TikTok app. At launch, only five British brands are available, including Seller, Luxe Collective, Sign of the Times, Hardly EvernItand File break.
Since the launch of the TikTok Shop in 2022, the platform has sold about $1 billion or more product value. However, despite its success, some argue that TikTok Shop is ruining the small-form video sharing app, arguing that fakes and poor-quality products are flooding the market. Counterfeits are the biggest risk when buying used luxury goods online, even with the biggest e-commerce giants (AmazoneBay and others) that face authenticity issues.
Like all resale markets, TikTok Shop has one anti-counterfeiting policy which guarantees a full refund if it is proven that the seller has sold a counterfeit product. Bloomberg recently reported that the company is in talks with luxury goods company LVMH to help fight counterfeiting.
All pre-owned brands on TikTok Shop US are required to have certificates from third-party authenticators. TikTok works with authentication services Entrupy and Real authentication to ensure that the designer bags on the platform are genuine.
Meanwhile, a TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch that the five UK brands all have their own internal authentication process. They wouldn’t say when it would start accepting other brands used.
The launch of TikTok Shop’s pre-owned luxury goods category is a strategic move to tap into the growing market for pre-owned luxury goods. The second-hand luxury goods market is a booming multi-billion dollar business, with an estimated $49.3 billion (€45 billion) worth of second-hand designer goods sold globally in 2023.
Furthermore, this expansion aligns with the growing trend of people embracing their favorite fashion and opens up new avenues for UK second-hand brands to reach a wider customer base. The popularity of second-hand fashion on TikTok is evident, with over 144,000 TikTok posts using the hashtag #secondhandfashionwhich has garnered around 1.2 billion views.
Today’s announcement comes as the US House of Representatives passed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a US ban, a bill that appears to be gaining support in the Senate. A ban would be a serious blow to US merchants who sell on the app. According to the company, the short video sharing app generated $14.7 billion for small to mid-sized businesses in 2023.
