TikTok Shop wants shoppers to know they can buy used Birkins — or a mini Kelly, a Rolex, or even ultra-rare Air Force 1s — directly on the platform. Will they?
The social media company introduced a pre-loved luxury category in the UK in 2023, expanding it to the US a year later. Now, in a bid to compete with household luxury resale platforms, TikTok is working with creators on a bigger push to make the platform a credible destination for secondhand consumers with thousands to spend. So far, TikTok says it’s sold more than 20 Birkins on its platform in 2025, and that number is growing.
Authenticity will be a key challenge. On TikTok Shop, individual sellers and businesses pay fees to operate on the platform, but they are responsible for the shipping process. Merchants can sell through shoppable, in-feed or live-stream videos, the TikTok Shop tab, or creator collaborations. To weed out counterfeits, TikTok requires its sellers to upload a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) from an approved third-party agency or in-house authentication service within 24 hours of an order being placed for pre-loved luxury bags, baggage, bag or baggage accessories, and footwear — otherwise, the order is canceled. However, as established resale platforms have shown, these measures don’t fully win over buyers.
“As more resale activity starts moving to a platform like TikTok, it really is going to come down to the trust in the seller and who they are,” says Sky Canaves, a principal analyst for retail and e-commerce at market research firm Emarketer.
There’s money to be made if successful. US social commerce sales will surpass $100 billion next year and grow to nearly $140 billion by 2028, per Emarketer data. And according to a recent resale report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Vestiaire Collective, the secondhand fashion and luxury market is growing threefold that of the firsthand market. While estimates of secondhand’s current and future size vary, confidence in the sector’s long-term trajectory remains steady. Affordability is the leading driver, having been cited by almost 80% of respondents in the BCG and Vestiaire Collective report as a key reason to buy secondhand. As luxury companies continue to raise prices, they are pushing aspirational consumers right into the arms of their resale competitors, says Canaves.
Gen Z also loves resale, driven by a desire for variety, uniqueness and the thrill of hunting for vintage treasures. Because TikTok already dominates the generation’s screen time, TikTok Shop’s foray into luxury resale arguably feels like a natural next step.
With the broader resale industry projected to reach $360 billion by 2030, per BCG, can a platform that became known for dupes carve out real credibility in an increasingly competitive luxury resale market? And how might TikTok Shop, and social commerce more generally, reshape how we buy and value luxury resale over the next five years and beyond?
Creators as credibility builders
To build trust, TikTok is tapping its most viable resource: content creators. “From a psychological standpoint, a familiar content creator may function as a trust proxy,” says Dr. Carolyn Mair, fashion business consultant and author of The Psychology of Fashion. “Consumers often develop a feeling they ‘know’ the creator and may transfer the trust they have in them to the product or platform being promoted,” she continues. “On TikTok, where informal, personable video formats create a sense of immediacy and honesty, this effect may be especially strong.”
Over the past few months, the TikTok Shop team has been reaching out to creators for luxury resale collaborations with in-app sellers. Miriam Young, a talent manager at influencer management firm Digital Brand Architects, spoke with a TikTok Shop representative who was looking for smaller, fashion-focused creators with strong conversions to host a 30-minute TikTok live recording with a secondhand luxury retailer, in which they show and discuss their favorite items from these stores and receive a commission if any of those items sell (typically between 20% and 30%).
Crossing TikTok Shop with TikTok Lives could prove to be lucrative. Melissa Bohm, a Philadelphia-based luxury reseller, who goes by Melissa Loves Bags, began live streaming on TikTok after the platform approached her in 2022. That was two years before TikTok Shop formally launched pre-loved luxury as a category in the US; a sign that this expansion has been on the company’s radar for quite some time. Since moving to TikTok Shop from Tradesy (which was acquired and quickly shut down by Vestiaire Collective in 2022), Bohm has grown her follower count from 200 to over 60,000, with many regularly engaging with her content and buying her products. She says the biggest difference between TikTok Shop and other selling platforms is its community. “It feels like you’re a group of friends hanging out and discovering designer bags together,” Bohm says.
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The experience of shopping with hundreds or thousands of online peers can function as a means of social approval. “It’s like social proof that it’s a popular item,” says Ben Gallagher, director of brand marketing at Fashionphile and former co-founder of Luxe Collective. There is also an educational or customer service aspect to their selling. Gallagher and Bohm have noticed that users frequently ask questions about brands, the selling process and returns — deepening the sense of credibility buyers associate with the creators they follow.
The hurdles ahead
TikTok Shop still faces an uphill battle to establish itself as a premier luxury resale contender. The same community feel that powers its live streams can also lead to impulse buying. “TikTok collapses the discovery and decision-making funnel, so you see the piece, hear the story, feel the emotions and then buy the item — all in one window,” notes fashion psychologist Jennifer Heinen. Impulse buying, in turn, leads to heightened returns — something the resale industry already struggles with due to its unique inventory, and that TikTok Shop actively discourages.
That one-of-one stock leads to operational difficulties up front as well. “TikTok is all about freshness,” says Gallagher. “If I need to show 150 products for each live session, that is quite tough for a business model with single SKU products.”
Perception-wise, some still see TikTok Shop as a hodgepodge of cheap dupes and knock-off products. That reputation is only fueled by the recent wave of AI-driven scammers attempting to list fake brands and products on the marketplace. A November report published by TikTok claims the company rejected 70 million products and removed 700,000 sellers for policy violations in the first half of 2025. As TikTok Shop ramps up its luxury resale capabilities and technology continues to evolve, there’s a risk these scams will increase in frequency and sophistication.
TikTok Shop’s geographic limitations might be the most frustrating hurdle for entrepreneurs. Accounts can only sell domestically, which clearly limits customer reach and raises questions around how tariffs will be managed if and when the marketplace does expand beyond borders. All of this hints at a shifting luxury resale ecosystem that’s trying to define its next phase.
TikTok Shop is likely to complement and expand consumer awareness and engagement around resale, experts say. “TikTok content as a whole feeds into the resale boom, because there’s more content being created around resale,” Emarketer’s Canaves says. “Not just people selling products, but also posting content that gives people ideas about how to become sellers themselves.” More sellers, of course, strengthen the resale ecosystem by increasing product availability and improving buyers’ chances of finding what they want.
The future of luxury resale will be defined by the luxury experience. As technology and macroeconomic factors continue to reshape the way we shop, that experience might look a little different from bygone eras. Gen Zs approach fashion as both entertainment and self-expression; they love a good treasure hunt and a good deal. Luxury resale naturally taps into that impulse, and so does TikTok Shop.
