Will the youths get thrifty-luxe on TikTok?

TikTok Shop doesn’t exactly have a luxury reputation. It’s been called the “dollar store of the internet” thanks to its hordes of cheap and on-trend items, purpose-built and advertised for scrollers to experience a frictionless one-click buy. It’s also become a favorite locale for dropshippers hawking overpriced AliExpress tchotchkes. And there’s a whole genre of YouTube haul videos that just revolve around ordering questionable products (often in the beauty or tech niches) to see if they’re real or a scam.

That’s not to say some legit brands aren’t making TikTok Shop work for them. e.l.f. Cosmetics, for example, is all over it.

But all of this boils down to one thing: The people spending collective billions on TikTok Shop are used to adding low-priced products to their carts.

So where does luxury fashion fit into that framework?

TikTok first dipped its toes into the Louboutin world back in 2023, when it introduced a “pre-loved luxury category” for shoppers in the U.K. Now it’s making a real effort to appeal to U.S. shoppers–who’ve become steadily more accustomed to social shopping over the past couple of years–by listing high-ticket, secondhand items.

How high-ticket? We’re talking Hermès and Chanel bags (some of which are listed for up to $11K) and sneakers from Louis Vuitton and Nike. Just ahead of Black Friday, TikTok Shop added watches from brands like Rolex and Cartier.

“Many well-known watch brands have been symbols of luxury, affluence, and status for decades, making them desirable and collectible pieces that can be passed down from generation to generation,” TikTok wrote in a plying post to users. “Access to these pieces is also limited—top brands only make so many high-end watches per year, making a secondhand purchase a preferable option for many. And because of the noteworthy nature of these items, we know it’s extra-important to provide assurance that you’re getting real-deal, authentic timepieces from vetted, trustworthy sellers.”

To be clear, TikTok itself is not selling these luxury items. Instead, the handbags, shoes, watches, and more come from a “curated list of US-based sellers.” As Vogue explains, merchants who are approved to sell pre-owned luxury on TikTok Shop have to submit official certificates of authenticity, either from trusted third-party agencies or from a brand’s in-house authentication office, within 24 hours of a sale being clinched. If the seller can’t produce that proof, the order is cancelled and the buyer gets their money back.

This might give some buyers comfort–but other platforms that have claimed to employ similar standards, like shoe reseller StockX, have still run into serious issues with counterfeits.

To reassure shoppers that luxury items are legit, TikTok is relying on the people who built its platform into the short-form powerhouse it is: content creators.

Vogue reports that over the last few months, the TikTok Shop team has been personally reaching out and matchmaking content creators with some of those “curated” sellers, setting them up for brand deals that advertise TikTok Shop’s luxury resale quarter. Miriam Young, a talent manager at DBA, told the outlet that TikTok Shop looks for smaller, fashion-focused creators with a proven record of strong conversions. If they’re picked for a deal, they’re asked to host a 30-minute TikTok Live (no surprise there) with the secondhand retailer, and get between 20 and 30% commission for items sold.

This strategy has helped to move more than 20 Birkin bags on TikTok Shop so far–which may not sound like a lot, but trust your local former fashion writer, it is serious dollar and culture value. New Birkins are enormously expensive and notoriously rare; they aren’t sold to the public and you usually need a long-term relationship with producer Hermès to be granted an opportunity to spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on a bag.

Secondhand Birkins still cost more than cars: on reseller Madison Avenue Couture, the lowest-priced secondhand Birkin is still upward of $11K. Its most expensive, an infamous diamond-encrusted Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile version of the Birkin 25, is $450K. We don’t think anyone dropped $450K on TikTok Shop, but expect its items sold in the $10-20K range.

With Birkin sales, there is clearly some sort of market on TikTok for luxury items–but we are curious if the dollars of the few will outweight the cheapness of the many. After all, the kids are really digging “thriftmas” this year…