Sources of value for luxury secondhand and vintage fashion consumers in Poland—from the perspective of its demographic characteristics

Value propositions have become a key constituent in all areas of business, and understanding what value is expected by customers, as well as creating, communicating and delivering that value to customers, is a key factor for gaining a competitive advantage. Sources of value propositions differ in different sectors. Although there are quite a lot of researchers who refer to value propositions in retailing in general, there is still a complete lack of research into this phenomenon in the luxury secondhand and vintage retailing sector in Poland. The sector is also under researched. Therefore, the aim of this paper is firstly to explore the potential and characteristics of the luxury secondhand and vintage fashion sector in Poland. Secondly, based on a literature study, the paper aims at identifying the sources of value for customers shopping in luxury secondhand and vintage clothing stores. Finally, the study examines what the main values are for customers purchasing luxury secondhand and vintage clothes, and whether as well as how the sources of value for secondhand clothing shoppers differ among various groups identified on the basis of such demographics as gender, age and income. The results show that out of the seven sources of value identified by the authors, one is the most important value proposition influencing the customer-shopping experience. This relates to so-called treasure hunting (value coming from the possibility of nosing around, ferreting, coming across a find, finding non-repetitive products). We also found that there are statistically significant differences in the way the identified sources of value are perceived by customers in different gender, age and income groups.