Gen Z can now buy (used) Chanel and Louis Vuitton on TikTok Shop

22 Apr 2024

TikTok Shop so far has been associated with buying supplements, bodysuits, hair tools or beauty products. Now it’s levelling up: via partnerships with luxury resale companies, scrollers can now purchase used designer handbags, like a Louis Vuitton monogram shoulder bag or a Bottega tote, on the platform.

Launched on Friday in the UK and US, the new vertical taps five UK-based luxury resale companies: Luxe Collective, Sellier Knightsbridge, Sign of the Times, Hardly Ever Worn It and Break Archive, who have already found success converting sales on their own sites from TikTok videos. The TikTok Shop tie-in lets them create shoppable livestreams and list inventory in the TikTok Shop tab.

Gen Z is the clear target: TikTok is capping these sellers’ listings at £4,000, and encouraging them to post a variety of price points, in order to reach the entry-level luxury consumer on the platform. TikTok Shop more broadly has a single-item price cap of £500, so sellers have had to go through an approvals process with the platform’s Singapore HQ to be able to retail above it.

TikTok Shop has previously been criticised for its high saturation of low quality, low cost goods. The marketplace launched with 2 per cent seller fees and free delivery for sellers, which attracted a swathe of ultra-fast fashion and mass market players to the platform, raising questions about seller responsibility and promotion of impulse buying. Last week, TikTok raised fees to 8 per cent, which some experts feel might encourage higher-end players, and discourage low quality selling. Until now, luxury brands by and large, have steered clear. But the new pre-loved category could be a smart way for the platform to prove out its potential as a luxury shopping channel.

It is, after all, TikTok Shop’s make or break year if it wants to be the first social platform to truly crack shopping. Part of that hinges on expanding beyond cheaply priced goods and suspicion of unknown sellers. Another relies on enriching the platform with a broader range of inventory and securing buy-in from fashion players beyond high street and fast fashion brands.