H&M Tries To Prevent Resale Of Designer Items

H&M is trying to prevent the online resale of its collection created with Italian designer Giambattista Valli.

The retailer limited the sale of the collection, which sold out on H&M websites across Europe hours after its Thursday (Nov. 7) launch, to one of each item so that shoppers couldn’t buy multiples and immediately sell them online.

“We are fundamentally positive about a secondhand market,” H&M Creative Designer Ann-Sofie Johansson told Reuters.  “It’s just when someone makes a business out of it that we don’t like it.”

Resellers on the online fashion marketplace Poshmark have sold items from H&M’s Giambattista Valli micro collection, which was released earlier this year before this week’s main launch, for around five times more than the original price. And on California-based resale marketplace Tradesy, shoppers can actually get a deal, with a Giambattista Valli shift dress selling for less than the retail price of the H&M collaboration.

But while some retailers limit purchases to prevent resales, the market is a crucial part of how teens and twentysomethings shop. Adidas Chief Executive Officer Kasper Rorsted revealed that its new Blackburn Spezial shoe sold for 50,000 euros ($55,225) on the resale market.

And the already huge market is expected to double in the next five years to $51 billion, with pieces from H&M collaborations selling 22 percent faster than pieces from brands’ main labels, according to luxury resale platform The RealReal. Back in May, a study of the most visited eCommerce fashion websites found that H&M was the world’s most frequented site. Last year, the retailer also provided a digital makeover to its eCommerce website and mobile app, incorporating visual search and the ability to find products by scanning price tags to check color and size options.