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The secondary market for luxury goods holds significant promise, but there are several key challenges to overcome, writes Luca Solca.

Secondhand luxury holds promise. Consumers have accumulated significant volumes of luxury goods in their wardrobes, some of which are hardly used. Giving these products a new life on the secondary market provides sellers with cash and gives a wider segment of consumers the opportunity to buy into luxury brands they could not otherwise afford. Over time, the secondary market for luxury goods could mature into something more structured, similar to what we have in cars.

But there are several key challenges that must be overcome.

Authenticity is a problem. Making sure secondhand luxury goods brought to the market are real is labour-intensive and fraught with scope for error. No secondhand player today can offer a 100 percent guarantee that what we buy is always authentic. At best, they can insure us against buying counterfeits.

Profitability is also a challenge. Managing secondhand inventory is also labour intensive and therefore costly. Attracting a critical mass of sellers and buyers — in order to produce a significant enough “network effect” — is also expensive. Secondhand pioneers are finding that low touch inventory management processes and a razor thin cost structure are essential to survival.

Furthermore, commitment from brands remains elusive. Secondhand luxury demand is highly concentrated on a handful of mega-brands which have no interest in making their styles more visible by providing means for consumers to reduce inventory in their closets. In fact, one of the ways mega-brands have kept ubiquity at bay while growing revenues is by getting the same customers to buy more and more. (Consumers can only use one bag at a time, so brands have been able to move more units while keeping them out of circulation by selling more pieces to existing customers).

Additionally, commitment from luxury clients is unclear. While it seems obvious that consumers want to buy coveted luxury goods products at a discount to their retail price, it is less sure that those who buy iconic luxury products at full price are keen to sell large volumes of their purchases at a loss.

Today, the secondhand luxury market gets a boost from professional traders. In such circumstances, secondhand can be profitable for the brands involved. Take the example of Privé Porter, the world’s largest reseller of Hermès bags. It’s a known fact that Hermès sales associates ask “inner circle” customers to buy other Hermès products to qualify for the chance to buy a Birkin or Kelly bag. Of course, among this “inner circle” are many canny traders who can afford to dress in head-to-toe Hermès and make some money on top from buying and reselling bags to clients with little patience.

In certain product categories, the prevalence of wholesale also supports second-hand sales. Who is uploading unworn watches with their original boxes and certificates to the resale site Chrono24? Definitely not brands or repentant consumers; it is multi-brand retailers which hope to monetise slow moving inventory they mistakenly bought (or were forced to buy). The rise of Chrono24 has brought an unprecedented level of transparency to the watch market, exposing the fact that some products, brand new, never worn, are selling for 30 percent off. This window will close, though, as leading watch brands, a few steps behind soft luxury brands, reduce wholesale exposure.

Thus far, brand participation in the secondary market has been limited. Many soft luxury brands have announced their interest in secondhand, but, in most cases, what they have done is to use the secondhand market to offload unsold products at the end of the season as an alternative to off-price channels — our field research points to Gucci, as one prominent example.

Other brands like Rolex (with Bucherer) seem to have embraced certified pre-owned as a way to limit demand spillover to competitors as they suffer persistent capacity constraints. This makes sense to all involved, as in these conditions certified pre-owned sells above the new recommended retail price.

Yet, the emergence of a small secondhand market benefits mega-brands. In fact, the emergence of the secondhand market further reinforces category consolidation and mega-brand concentration, as it provides instantaneous and transparent evidence of which brands hold value and which don’t. This is bound to push middle class consumers — which we consider as most conservative, as they have a limited number of luxury purchases they can afford — to converge even more to “sure fire” brands.

Many specialist resale players have failed to impress. It is not surprising that secondhand businesses jumping into the market with a mix of lofty ambitions, no clear cost operations strategy and no obvious trading angle have failed spectacularly. The Real Real is a case in point. Vestiaire Collective, run with hard-nosed cost and process efficiency, has better prospects.

Technology could help. The adoption of common blockchain standards in association with RFID could help solve resale’s’ authenticity problem. We are seeing the industry’s first steps in this direction with the recently launched Aura Blockchain Consortium, in which LVMH, Prada and Cartier participate. A rapid U-turn on secondhand is unlikely, however: LVMH chief Bernard Arnault has made it clear that his company’s priority is selling new products, not used ones.

A new campaign features dancers from the ballet corps, while the brand has signed on to sponsor an accessibility program for families and children.

PARIS — Good news for Parisians looking to score pieces from Clare Waight Keller’s first collection for Uniqlo: The Japanese brand will reopen its flagship next to the city’s Palais Garnier on Sept. 15, the same day the highly anticipated line drops online and in shops around the globe.

“We look forward to welcoming many visitors from Paris and abroad,” said Taku Morikawa, chief executive officer of Uniqlo Europe. The company is taking advantage of its location just steps away from the famed opera house, he revealed.

To celebrate the store reopening, the brand’s campaign will feature seven dancers from the ballet corps posing on the opera house’s grand staircase and demonstrating moves in the Rotonde du Glacier mirrored reception room, all clad in Uniqlo.

“We are happy to seal a partnership with our neighbor, Paris Opéra, an institution that we have been watching with admiration for years and with which we continue our approach to make art ever more accessible,” he added.

To that end, Uniqlo will team up with the historic institution to support the “My First Time at the Opera” program, which allows families with children access to discounted tickets to attend shows. This season the “Cinderella” opera performance and the “Don Quixote” ballet are part of the special slate.

The Rue Scribe location closed in January for a nine-month revamp. The new layout will add a grand central staircase and significant floor space to the now 24,380-square-foot store. The updated configuration sees the shopping area span three levels and feature more open areas for ease of flow.

The store will also feature an area highlighting Japanese culture, including T-shirts with graphic design inspired by Japanese art, plus an area dedicated to customizing pieces from the UTme line. A repair and tailoring bar will also be on hand for alterations, clothing care and personalization.

The brand also plans to host an opening event during Paris Fashion Week.

Having your tech ready to go could save your life during floods, hurricanes and wildfires

Is tech useless during a natural disaster? Far from it—if you prepare correctly.

Hurricanes and floods wreak havoc on the Southern and Eastern coasts in the summer and fall, wildfire season ramps up in the West and heat waves stretch from one side of the country to the other. The devastating fire on the Hawaiian island of Maui earlier this month became the country’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century. And Hurricane Hilary posed a rare threat to Southern California.

Scientists believe climate change will make extreme weather events occur more often. When they do, power and cellphone service often fail. But that doesn’t mean your tech won’t be important or useful.

Here are some steps you can take to make sure your tech is ready before an extreme weather event—including ways to get in touch with emergency services when you don’t have a wireless signal.

Juice up your devices

The basics are important during a disaster. Include spare batteries, flashlights and hand-cranked radios in your emergency kit, says the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Keep your devices plugged in during bad weather so they will be fully charged if the electricity fails. Top up any power banks you own as a backup. Some newer products from companies such as Anker can juice up your smartphone and laptop at the same time.

If you want to go bigger than the pocketable battery packs, WSJ personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen recommends buying a portable power station. They are typically the size of a boombox, are cheaper than generators and can be safely operated indoors. They likely won’t power your refrigerator for days but can keep your smartphone charged.

Solar-powered batteries can be helpful backups, but clouds and thick smoke can block the rays needed to charge them. They also tend to drain quickly when out of direct sunlight, which means they shouldn’t be the primary batteries you use, said Tim Frazier, faculty director of the emergency and disaster management program at Georgetown University.

To extend the battery life of your devices themselves, turn on the low power modes offered on iPhones and Android phones. That typically dims the screen and limits other functions to consume less energy. And keep your devices away from heat as much as possible, as WSJ senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern reported.

If cellphone service and power are down during or after a storm, there is a chance you could still access your home Wi-Fi to text and call others. Just make sure your modem and router are plugged into an external backup battery.

The type of internet you have can make a difference, too. Fiber-optic internet can be more reliable than cable internet during storms since it is less vulnerable to outages, said Dane Jasper, chief executive of Sonic, a fiber-optic internet-service provider based in Santa Rosa, Calif.

An ISP that has its system running on backup power from generators could also give you internet access, but it isn’t guaranteed, he added. Last week, Comcast launched a storm-ready device designed to keep Xfinity customers online by using backup power and cellular connectivity during network and power outages.

iPhone 14 users can take advantage of Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite service to contact emergency services when out of cellular range in supported countries. (Older iPhones don’t have the necessary hardware, and mainstream Android phones don’t yet have satellite connectivity.) You need to be outdoors with a clear view of the sky to connect with the satellites.

Prepare to use this service by updating your Medical ID—a page in the Health app with your allergies, medications and other information—and by assigning your emergency contacts ahead of time. (You should set those up even if you don’t have an iPhone 14. More on that below.)

Run a test of the satellite emergency service to familiarize yourself with the process. Open Settings on your iPhone 14 and select Emergency SOS. Under Emergency SOS via satellite, tap Try Demo and follow the instructions.

If you are in a real emergency, first try calling 911. If it won’t connect, tap the button that says Emergency Text via Satellite. Then fill out a multiple-choice questionnaire about the emergency and who needs help. It can send an alert to your emergency contacts.

People who spend a lot of time in remote locations or want to always have backup satellite communication abilities can consider a specialized satellite-messaging device. Garmin and Motorola make such devices, which typically cost $400 or less, plus monthly service fees.

Even if you are stuck indoors while the world is raging outside, it is important to stay informed about what is happening around you—especially when circumstances can change quickly. Maui officials said the fire was 100% contained in the morning, only for it to flare up and spread rapidly by the afternoon.

The National Weather Service and FEMA send wireless emergency alerts directly to smartphones over cellular networks. These alerts are turned on by default, but you can check in your phone’s settings to see if you have turned them off accidentally. You can also sign up for power-outage text alerts by following setup instructions from your electric company.

You may miss alerts if you don’t have cell service, so it is important to have a hand-cranked or battery-powered emergency radio just in case.

You can notify friends and family when you call emergency services by setting them as emergency contacts. On iPhones, open the Health app, tap your profile picture, then tap Medical ID. Tap Edit, then scroll to where it says Emergency Contacts and tap the green plus button to add someone new. Choose who you want to add from your Contacts, specify the person’s relationship to you, then tap Done to save your changes.

Android users can set this up using Google’s Personal Safety app, though it might not be available on all Android devices.

There are several free tools available to check the air quality in your neighborhood, including Google Maps and Apple’s built-in Weather app.

If smoke from a wildfire seeps into a home, an air-quality monitor that measures pollution can tell you just how bad the air is inside, while an air purifier can help you get rid of it. Look for an air purifier with a faster fan speed and a high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filter to clean larger rooms thoroughly. WSJ reviewers like air purifiers from companies such as Coway.

And remember: The most expensive tools aren’t always essential to survive a disaster. Test your devices regularly, make sure your personal information is up-to-date, and get a head start on charging to make sure they are ready to go when needed.