Some handbags sell secondhand for almost three times their retail price. Others lose more than half their value. Most brands never find out which group their products fall into, or why. Their customers do. Nearly half of luxury shoppers now check resale value before buying something new, because two bags with the same price tag can cost very different amounts to own.
Resale value is now part of the price
Design teams should track resale value as closely as they track sell-through. Put resale retention next to sell-through at every range review, and use both when deciding which styles to carry forward, which colours to retire and how many units to make.
Ask the resale platforms that already sell your products, or your own resale programme if you have one, for completed-sale data by style, material and colour. Where possible, compare like-for-like products by age and condition, and separate actual transaction prices from asking prices. Then share the data with the designers, product developers, merchandisers and planners who make product decisions.
Customers already do this. Nearly half of shoppers now check what something will be worth secondhand before they buy it new. According to The RealReal’s 2025 Resale Report, 47% of consumers consider resale value before buying something new. The figure comes from The RealReal’s own research, so it should be read as one company’s data. The wider market points the same way.
The RealReal’s 2026 Resale Report shows the secondary luxury market growing two to three times faster than the primary market. The BoF and McKinsey reports projects that secondhand fashion will grow faster than the firsthand market through 2027. BCG and Vestiaire Collective put secondhand growth at around 10% a year, roughly three times faster than firsthand.
That makes resale value part of the price. Take two bags that both cost €3,000. The first retains 90% of its value, so after a few years its owner can sell it for €2,700, and the gross cost of ownership is €300. The second retains 40%, sells for €1,200, and has cost its owner €1,800. Before selling costs and maintenance, one bag costs six times more to own than the other, despite the identical price tag. A customer who checks resale prices before buying can see that difference, although no retail price list shows it.
How much retention varies
Retention varies widely, even within one category. According to Rebag’s 2025 Clair Report, Hermès led the handbag category, with the Kelly Mini II reaching 282% value retention, the Sellier Birkin 183% and the Constance 137%. The Row reached 97% retention, and Miu Miu climbed to an average of 104%.
These figures compare resale value with retail price. A bag at 282% retention sells for 2.82 times its retail price, a gain of 182%. So some bags are worth more after years of use than when they were new.
Many well-known houses sit far lower. Rebag’s index places Bottega Veneta, Celine, Chloé, Balenciaga, Valentino Garavani, Givenchy and others lower on the retention axis, and Rebag has historically classed brands that keep less than 50% of their retail price as its lower-performing tiers. These brands sell to many of the same customers, at similar prices and often in similar leather, yet their bags hold value very differently.
What this means for smaller brands
Hermès-level figures are not a realistic target for an SME. A small independent brand cannot build decades of recognition, tightly controlled distribution or global resale demand in a few seasons. It can, however, learn from the product decisions that help certain styles hold their value.
For a smaller brand, resale retention has more to do with longevity than with investment value. A recognisable design language, consistent materials, repairable construction and a focused range all help a product stay relevant after its first season.
This has a commercial side as well. A customer who knows a bag will last for years, can be repaired and may later find a buyer on the secondhand market will find its original price easier to accept. For an independent brand competing with larger, better-known houses, that reassurance carries more weight than it does for an established name.
An SME does not need its own resale platform to learn from the market. It can monitor secondhand listings of its products, talk to resale specialists, keep track of customers who resell their purchases, and ask long-term owners what they value after several years of use. Completed sales are more useful than asking prices, and with small volumes it is worth looking at patterns across several seasons. Over time, this shows which products keep attracting buyers and which do not.
The point is not to promise customers that a product will keep a set percentage of its price. Resale performance is simply one more source of product information, helping a smaller brand build collections that customers keep and use for longer before selling them on or passing them down. That is a more realistic starting point than trying to compete with luxury houses on resale value.
What drives the difference
Hype and luck play a part, and some factors are outside a brand’s control. Many of the most important drivers, however, are settled long before a product reaches the shop floor.
The first is keeping an iconic shape in the range instead of replacing it every season. A shape that stays in production for decades builds recognition, which helps sustain demand in the secondhand market, where buyers often look for styles they already know and trust. When a style is quietly discontinued, its resale market can lose the constant visibility that keeps demand alive.
Materials matter too. A secondhand buyer cannot inspect the production line, so they rely on the bag being what they expect it to be. Leather that develops an attractive patina can add to a product’s appeal over time, while inconsistent quality creates doubt and can weaken resale demand.
Construction decides whether a bag survives years of use. Handles, corners, stitching and edge finishing all affect durability, and condition is one of the first things a resale platform checks when setting a price.
Colour also plays a part. A core palette that stays the same across seasons helps a product remain recognisable, while seasonal shades can become harder to sell as tastes change.
The last is volume. Producing a little less than demand protects full-price sell-through. Overproduction leads to markdowns, which can reset the reference price used by resale buyers and sellers, and a product regularly sold below its retail price is unlikely to command a premium secondhand.
No single decision here guarantees a higher resale price. Together, they affect whether a product stays desirable and in good condition after its first sale.
Where the data ends up
Resale data rarely reaches the people making those decisions. It sits on resale platforms, and when a brand does receive it, it usually goes to e-commerce, strategy or sustainability teams. Product teams mostly work from sell-through, margin and trend forecasts. According to the State of Fashion 2026 report, fewer than a third of industry executives called resale a priority for 2026.
Resale prices show how product decisions perform over the long term, including which shapes, materials and colours still attract buyers years after launch. That information should feed into the next collection.
Putting resale data to use
For designers and product developers, the starting point is the previous collection. Look for the shapes, proportions and details that recur in high-retention styles, and build on them.
When introducing a new style, decide early whether it is meant to become a long-term part of the range or to last one season.
Choose materials with their second life in mind. Consider how a leather or canvas will look after five years of daily use, and whether it can be produced consistently enough for a buyer to trust a pre-owned piece without seeing the original. The same applies to hardware, linings and edge finishing, which often show wear first.
Test construction over several years of use. Review handles, corners, zips and stitching with repair in mind, so a worn bag can be restored. Keep seasonal shades as limited additions to a consistent core palette.
Merchandisers, planners and buyers can add resale retention to the criteria for carrying styles forward, alongside sell-through and margin.
A style with average first-season sales but strong resale value may deserve a longer place in the range than a bestseller that loses value quickly, because resale data shows which products are likely to stay commercially relevant after launch.
Plan volumes conservatively for styles where resale value matters most. A small shortfall is easier to recover from than surplus stock sold through markdowns, outlets or discount channels, which can lower the reference price for existing owners.
Senior leaders can make sure resale data is part of the regular reporting that product teams receive. Agree data-sharing arrangements with the platforms that already trade your products, or collect the data through your own resale or trade-in programme, and give one person responsibility for turning it into product recommendations. This can be done with existing teams and existing data.
Keep watching the market
Resale values change with trends, prices and supply, sometimes quickly, so a single snapshot can mislead.
Rebag reported that The Row’s handbags retained 59% of their value in 2023, when the quiet luxury trend was lifting logo-free brands, and 97% by 2025. Established icons move as well. SACLÀB’s data shows the average resale price of the Hermès Kelly fell 15.5% from its 2023 peak to mid-2026, and the Birkin’s by 6.9%.
Retail pricing affects the figures too. Because retention is measured against retail price, a brand that raises its prices faster than secondhand values rise will see retention fall even if demand stays steady. Rebag noted this in 2023, when several top brands saw slight declines in retention because primary price increases outpaced the secondary market.
Retention is therefore an indirect measure of desirability. Read it alongside transaction volume, time to sale, condition and changes in retail pricing.
Review the data at least once a season and look at how it moves over time. Compare individual styles instead of brand-wide averages, and follow new launches closely during their first one to two years on the secondhand market, when early signs of lasting demand usually appear. This makes it easier to tell a temporary spike from long-term desirability.
If customers are already pricing in the second life of a product, the team designing it should do the same. The first sale shows what customers wanted at launch, and the resale market shows whether they still want it years later.