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Finance & Markets · Asia Pacific

Chinese shoppers turn to resale as luxury market contracts

Bain & Company said mainland China’s personal luxury market contracted 3% to 5% in 2025, while the secondhand luxury market grew 15% to 20%. CNA reported that shoppers are turning to secondhand luxury goods and homegrown brands as they tighten spending.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 2 independent reports from 5 outlets · Article text read from 1 of 2 reportsHow it's made

View timeline · 8 entries
5 outlets2 regionsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Mostly CenterL 1 · C 4 · R 0
Updat3 graphic: China
Updat3 graphic · Map data: Natural Earth Natural Earth (public domain)

What happened

Key facts

  • The market fell by as much as 19% in 2024, according to Bain & Company.
  • Consumers in China are turning to secondhand luxury goods and homegrown brands.
  • Galeries Lafayette shut its Beijing flagship in May.

The brief

Bain & Company’s figures show mainland China’s luxury market contracting while secondhand luxury sales expanded in 2025. The consultancy put the decline in the personal luxury market at 3% to 5%, following a fall of as much as 19% in 2024. It estimated that the secondhand luxury market grew 15% to 20% in 2025.

CNA reported the figures and described shoppers turning toward used luxury goods and Chinese homegrown brands as they tighten spending. The account links the market shift to changes in shopping habits, without assigning a single cause to the market’s decline. A Shanghai dance teacher told AFP that shoppers now compare who secured a better deal and spent less.

That comment points to price comparisons as part of the changed shopping culture CNA describes; it does not establish why any particular company closed a store. CNA’s excerpt describes a customer browsing purses at the Zhuanzhuan superstore in Shanghai’s Jing’an District.

The account says the image was taken on Oct 14, 2026, and describes the shop as a two-storey, warehouse-style space in the city centre. The scene offers a specific example of secondhand luxury retail, alongside Bain & Company’s broader estimate of growth in the market. The report also notes store closures by two foreign retailers.

Galeries Lafayette shut its Beijing flagship in May. Louis Vuitton closed five mainland China stores in the past two years, including a chocolate boutique in Shanghai. The report gives no reason for those closures and does not say that the growth of secondhand shopping caused them.

CNA quotes Phoebe Ma, 24, saying that her mother’s generation initially knew only a handful of luxury brands, in a China she described as less developed. Ma said foreign brands should work hard to remain relevant in the current context.

Shopper Echo Wang, 31, who works in marketing, described the change as “a bit absurd.” The comments provide individual views, rather than evidence of how all Chinese consumers regard luxury brands.

The figures and examples in the account capture contrasting directions: Bain & Company estimated a shrinking personal luxury market and a fast-growing secondhand segment, while the retailer examples document closures.

The account does not identify the reasons for the market changes or store decisions beyond its description of tighter consumer spending and changing shopping habits. It leaves the scale of the shift in individual consumer behaviour and the companies’ explanations for their closures unspecified.

Why it matters

  • Mainland China’s personal luxury market contracted 3% to 5% in 2025, according to Bain & Company, while the secondhand luxury market grew 15% to 20%; those figures show sharply different trends across the two segments.
  • Shoppers tightening spending and comparing deals are part of the shift CNA describes, with a Shanghai dance teacher telling AFP that consumers now compare who spent less.
  • Galeries Lafayette shut its Beijing flagship, and Louis Vuitton closed five mainland China stores in the past two years; these are concrete changes for the named retailers, though the account does not state their reasons.

What to watch next

  • Whether Bain & Company reports further figures on mainland China’s personal luxury market and secondhand luxury sales.
  • Whether Galeries Lafayette or Louis Vuitton provides reasons for the closures described by CNA.
  • Whether the consumer behaviour CNA describes—shopping secondhand and choosing homegrown brands—continues to appear in the account’s examples.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
5 source articles · 5 unique outlets · 2 distinct reports
Outlet political mix: Mostly Center· 1 Left · 4 Center
Where the outlets are based: Asia 40% · Unknown 40% · Other 20%
Outlet political mix
Mostly Center
Left
Center
Right
1 outlet
4 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
5 unique outletsDominant coverage: Asia
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among Center-rated outlets (4 of 5 rated sources); comparatively few Right-rated outlets have published on the event.
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. China joined the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001, a landmark in its integration into global trade.
    Background · from our historical context
  2. Alibaba launched Taobao, an online marketplace in China.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. Meanwhile, the Communist Party’s campaign against corruption, launched after Xi Jinping became party leader in 2012, included restrictions on official banquets and gift-giving.
    Background · from our historical context
  4. Alibaba launched Xianyu, its secondhand marketplace also known as Idle Fish.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  5. On June 1, 2015, China cut import tariffs on some consumer goods, including selected clothing, footwear and cosmetics; later tariff reductions affected other categories.
    Background · from our historical context
  6. Hongbulin, a platform focused on authenticated pre-owned luxury goods, was founded in 2016.
    Background · from our historical context
  7. China’s E-Commerce Law took effect, setting rules for e-commerce operators and sellers.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  8. Bain & Company reported that mainland China’s personal luxury market fell by as much as 19%.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3

How we got here

In December 2023, Bain & Company estimated that mainland China’s personal luxury-goods market had contracted by 18% to 20% that year, after a post-pandemic rebound in 2021 and 2022. Bain linked the 2023 downturn to factors including cautious consumer spending and Chinese shoppers’ return to buying luxury goods abroad, which had reduced purchases at home.

Alibaba launched Taobao in 2003, and its secondhand marketplace Xianyu (also known as Idle Fish) followed in 2014. Hongbulin, a platform focused on authenticated pre-owned luxury goods, was founded in 2016.

Original sources

2 of 5 articles · Unknown · Show all

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