Guide to China’s Zzer secondhand stores

Mainland China remains the world’s second-largest luxury market, according to Bain & Company, even after two straight years of contraction. That leaves a lot of designer goods sitting in Chinese closets, and one Shanghai company has built a business on getting them back into circulation. Zzer (只二), a consignment platform founded in June 2015, has grown from an online resale business into a network of self-service warehouse stores in six Chinese cities. Its Shanghai flagship, near the Hongqiao transport hub, has become a regular stop for content creators filming shopping tours, several of whom bill it as China’s largest secondhand luxury store. In 2023, Zzer’s gross merchandise value reached a record 2 billion RMB ($298.4 million), helped by its push into physical stores, Monocle reported. With luxury brands now contending with a tepid mainland market, the company’s expansion tests whether Chinese shoppers who have pulled back on new goods will buy them secondhand instead. “China is on another level with luxury shopping, it’s in a league of its own,” said @kxrpova in her tour Reel. “Let me introduce you to Zzer. [...] Every major fashion house that you can think of, they have it.” The concept came from a closet. Founder and chief executive Zhu Tainiqi (祝泰倪奇) got the idea from his wife, by his account. He told Monocle in 2024 that she introduced him to secondhand luxury, and that her struggle to sell several Chanel handbags pushed him to leave private equity and start a company. Chinese consumers, he said, had been buying “half of the global supply of luxury goods” for two decades, so their closets had to be full of handbags that needed a way back into circulation. Bain & Company’s figures put the peak share closer to a third: Chinese consumers accounted for 35% of global luxury spending in 2019. Its stated mission is to “make selling as easy as buying,” and it urges customers to “think secondhand first.” The app launched in 2016 selling secondhand clothing and moved into luxury handbags and accessories from 2017, Chinese tech outlet 36Kr reported. Zzer opened its first physical stores, in Shanghai and Chengdu, in 2021, according to Reuters. By September 2022, Zhu told Reuters, the number of consigners, or people putting goods up for sale, was up 40% on the same period a year earlier. The platform had 12 million members and expected to sell 5 million luxury pieces that year. That store opened in December 2022 in the basement of Hongqiao Tiandi, also known as The Hub, a mall in Shanghai’s Minhang District near Hongqiao railway station. It drew more than 100,000 shoppers in its first six months, China Daily reported in May 2025, and in August 2023 ZZER expanded it from 3,000 sqm to nearly 10,000 — larger than a soccer pitch. Zhu told the paper he had expected only existing app users to visit. Instead, shoppers came from across China and from Europe, the US and South Korea. By the time of the report, Zzer had sold more than 100,000 items from more than 5,000 international brands. For @coolmumdianna, one of several content creators who have filmed tours of the store, size is the draw. “Zzer luxury outlet is so big that it makes luxury preloved shopping anywhere else feel pointless,” the creator said. “[...] It's like stepping into a living archive of luxury design.” From Shanghai, Zzer took the warehouse format on the road. In early 2024, with four stores open, Zhu told Monocle he was aiming for at least 10 cities within two years. That window has now closed with Zzer in six (Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Beijing and Nanjing), according to the company’s Instagram profile. Like the Shanghai flagship, the other five locations trade as “Transparent Warehouses” (透明仓) and sit inside large malls: Kaledo in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District, Poly Times Plaza in Chengdu, Hangzhou Center in Gongshu District, Livat Beijing in Daxing District and Nanjing China Central Place in Gulou District, according to Zzer’s store listings. The Chengdu store, in the mall’s basement, opened with the complex in October 2024 and covers 3,000 sqm, Chinese retail outlet iziRetail reported. What is unique about Zzer? Inside, the stores run on self-service. Visitors leave their bags in lockers at the entrance, since nothing may be carried onto the shop floor, and pull on single-use gloves before handling the stock. At the Shenzhen store, handbags sit in clear display cases grouped by brand. QR codes stand in for price tags. Shoppers scan them with ZZER’s app, which has an English-language setting, or its WeChat mini program to see an item’s price and condition, then pay on their phones, according to Zzer’s App Store listing. For buyers who can’t reach a store, Zzer livestreams its inventory daily from 8am to 1am and takes bookings for private viewings, the Post reported. Authentication happens before anything reaches the shop floor. Zzer had more than 20 senior in-house authenticators checking every item and aimed to list goods within 72 hours of receiving them, 36Kr reported in 2021. Consignors set their own prices and pay Zzer a commission, and every location takes consignments in store,so shoppers can bring in unwanted pieces to sell. Discounts can run as deep as 80% off retail. “If you’re lucky you can get a new item at almost half the retail price,” content creator @funskincare said in a short video filmed at the store. “You can even make an offer online on their apps.” Stores open from 10am to 10pm daily, with Shenzhen’s location staying open until 10:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The appetite shows online, where the hashtag #shanghaivintageshop has drawn 364.7 million impressions, and #Zzer itself is at 40.3 million impressions on Xiaohongshu. Secondhand luxury was slow to take off in China compared with Japan and the US, held back by a preference for newness and fears of buying fakes. Zhu has credited Japan’s vintage shops, popular with Chinese tourists, with changing habits at home. “Zzer demonstrates that the future of China’s secondhand luxury market is not simply about offering luxury products at lower prices,” says Lucrezia Seu, founder of Plush Consulting. “It is about creating a compelling retail experience in its own right, where convenience, trust, discovery, and circular consumption come together.”

Guide to China’s Zzer secondhand stores

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Guide to China’s Zzer secondhand stores

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