Second-hand deals are the recent consumption trend to get an eyeful of.

Seoul National University’s Consumer Trends Center, which is an expert social trend expert analysis institution, suggested the key word ‘Nth item’ as one of the 2021 consumption trends. What does the Nth item mean? It refers to the consumption trend of an item being regarded as new one even if it had been traded a number of times (Nth). It also reflects the societal status of active second-hand deals. Not only are second-hand deals active among those in their 40s and 50s, who are the main consumers, but they are also popular among the teenagers and people in their 20s. Second-hand deals websites and applications are getting bigger and bigger in size. Why are second-hand deals, all of a sudden, the talk of the town?

Re-sell Craze Created by Thrifty and Staying-home Consumption

As low growth was getting exacerbated, more people are getting interested in second-hand deals.

The second-hand market is growing in part because the economy is not doing so well. Since the financial crisis in 2008, low growth in economy has been an issue all around the world while the second-hand market started to grow. More people started to look for used goods rather than new products, and people also started to take interest in making money by selling things they no longer need or use. The book ‘Trend Korea 2021’ explained this phenomenon as “As low growth continues, consumers pursue happiness through used goods consumption. It’s a strategy to spend less within their budget while getting the most satisfaction possible.” The industry calculated Korea’s second-hand market to be around 4 trillion in 2008 whereas it amounted to a staggering 20 trillion as the second-hand market grew exponentially since the global financial crisis.

As staying-home consumption increased due to COVID-19, the second-hand market also got bigger.

COVID-19 was another factor in the growth of the second-hand market. People started to find goods that they no longer used due to COVID-19, and also some businesses shut down and registered their products in the second-hand market. A Korean second-hand deals app showed that many goods were registered under the keyword ‘out of business.’ Personnel from this app actually said that transactions between January to August this year grew by 25% compared to the same period last year while the amount of transactions increased by 21% against the previous year. New members joining in August also grew more than 50% compared to previous year.

Second-hand Deals for All Ages, from MZ Generation to 58 Generation

More people in all ages, from teens to 60s are making second-hand deals.

Second-hand deals are also an up-and-coming investment technique. Limited editions and luxury items are sold to make money. Experts say that the desire to purchase luxurious products by the MZ generation (Millennials born in early 1980s~early 2000s and Z generation born in mid-1990s~early 2000s) is a major cause as they view luxury goods as fashion items. MZ generation values the experience of discovering items that reflect their taste rather than owning numerous new products. They view the second-hand market differently than their older generations. For the MZ generation, the second-hand market is an opportunity to make valuable consumption at reasonable prices and get items good for their prices as well as an investment means.

Even though the MZ generation led the growth of the second-hand market, the fad is expanding these days to all ages. A Korean press carried out a survey for 1,535 men and women in their 20s~60s, which showed that the age group that most actively made second-hand deals was people in their 30s, followed by those in their 40s. Middle-aged people saw that their kids made pocket money with a second-hand deals app and got into second-hand deals themselves.

The Second-hand Market with Various Types of Products, from Luxury Goods to Everyday Items

Second-hand deals platforms aggressively provide systems for safe transactions as the market gets bigger (Photography source. Carrot Market homepage).

As people in all ages are making second-hand deals, products that are sold vary greatly. The second-hand deals app ‘Carrot Market’, which is mostly used by those in their 30s and 40s, sell not only luxury goods but also items for everyday life such as camping products, baby products, as well as sheet masks and health products; there is no boundary, everything is for sale on this app.

With such active second-hand deals going on, second-hand deals platforms are aggressively providing means for safe transactions. One second-hand deals website has its own second-hand deals monitoring team to focus on safe transactions. Another second-hand deals platform provides a safe payment system within the app. A recent second-hand deals start-up took on the transparent box concept where people can check out products before making the payment. These transparent boxes are installed in popular public places like universities, movie theaters, big shopping malls, etc., and a seller stores a product in one of the boxes with the price and phone number registered. A buyer sees the product, pushes the Purchase button and then takes the product.

Easy and Safe Deals for Used Cars, Too!

Un-contact second-hand deals are also quite active for automobiles as well.

With second-hand deals getting more active, the used car market is also doing well. More people are now making un-contact used car deals. Hyundai Capital Certified Used Cars, which began its first online sale in April 2018, showed up to 72.2% in online sales by March this year. Only 1 in 10 cars made up for the online purchase when the service was first launched; in just 2 years, the stats increased about 7 times. Such a huge increase was thanks to the effort made in relieving information gap between used car sellers and consumers. Hyundai Capital Certified Used Cars’ platform displays all information regarding cars with complete transparency as well as providing interior/exterior 360-degree photos of all the cars so that the consumers don’t have to visit the store in person to check out the cars. The ’48-hour guaranteed refund system’ is prepared against possible post-purchase inconvenience.

Hyundai Capital introduced the ‘Used Car Pre-purchase CHECK’ service for safe used car transactions.

Recently they introduced a service for safe used car transactions. It’s the used car consulting service ‘Used Car Pre-purchase CHECK.’ It makes use of data of used cars on sale in the used car sales complex; inputting a plate number will notify you whether the car actually exists. Information is updated real time, which prevents possible damage caused by fake articles for sale. Also, even if there is no plate number, you can look up used cars for sale by selecting car type/model year/trim, etc. It makes use of AI to provide a range of market prices based on recent transactions. AI learns the car sales data as consumers sell automobiles to the dealers through real-time online auction and provides the information. It recognizes market price fluctuations depending on the time of sale to predict past and future market prices, helping the consumers to make a reasonable purchase.

▶ ‘Used Car Pre-purchase CHECK’ service

So, we’ve looked into the second-hand market, used by people of all ages and filled with various products. It seems that the second-hand market will grow further, which makes the importance of an easy and safe transaction platform even greater. The related industries will continuously come up with measures to assure safe and satisfactory second-hand deals. Not to mention, we will need the trust between sellers and consumers, right? It will be quite interesting to see how the second-hand market grows.