Kering acquired 5% of Vestiaire Collective

Ever since the big fashion industry groups realized that there is an increasingly strong and growing second-hand market, one of their main goals has been to pull on their side that huge slice of consumers who, for financial or principle reasons, buy their luxury items in the various online marketplaces that have flourished a little everywhere in recent years. Perhaps Kering is the group that has jumped first on this trend, initially with Alexander McQueen's partnership with Vestiarie Collective that was the omen of a robust investment by the French group in the app: $216 million to buy 5% of its shares. Other micro-investors "helped" the mega-group in the investment, but they remained anonymous. Here are the words of François Pinault: 

Pre-owned luxury is now a real and deeply rooted trend, especially among younger customers. This trend is a real shift and it will shape the luxury industry and fashion as a whole for decades to come. 

Kering has two goals with this operation: one obvious and one less obvious. The obvious one, as emerges from Pinault's own words, is to open the business towards a new audience, younger and able to effectively afford the pricing points of second-hand luxury – all riding the white steed of sustainability and without the slightest productive effort: the only possible stress will in fact be logistical and organizational. The least obvious reason concerns luxury customers: Kering's strategy, tested in a soft version with McQueen's partnership, involves the re-engagement of old customers, who get rid of products that they do not use but that are invited to spend on new products of the same brand. In this way you could capitalize even on those who have already spent their money, creating personal contact with the customer and using it to feed the sales of the new collections, all expanding their sphere of influence on new and wider categories without "staining" themselves with the sin of the outlets and discounts – a topic that for the most haute fashion is still a cause of scandal.