Tag: Secondhand Items

Singapore – REFASH, a Singaporean omnichannel secondhand fashion destination under the Carousell Group, has announced the opening of its first Hong Kong store in Mongkok on 20 April with a special event where women can declutter their wardrobes for instant cash. This marks the brand’s Hong Kong expansion plans beyond their over 20 stores across Singapore and Malaysia.

REFASH’s first Hong Kong store brings the best of their Singapore and Malaysia shopping experience. Hong Kongers can look forward to a specially-curated inventory of ‘brand new with tags’ (BNWT) women’s fashion from popular Singapore and other leading Southeast Asian brands, which are otherwise unavailable in the Hong Kong market.

With the Municipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme implementing soon, this provides an alternative option to encourage Hong Kongers to not only avoid throwing away items still in good condition, but also provide a convenient way that appeals to busy Hong Kongers.

Aloysius Sng, founder and CEO at REFASH, said, “REFASH was started 8 years ago to extend the lifespan of clothes and build a more sustainable future for fashion. I am heartened that over the years, we have collectively diverted over 7.3 million clothes from the landfills and given over 3.6 million used clothes a second life. We wanted to target the Hong Kong market next after our Malaysia expansion last year, as we saw a market gap to reach the mass market of Hong Kongers. We believe that sustainability should not be a trend, but part of everyday life.”

He added, “We are excited by great initial results in Hong Kong. In Jan and Mar this year, we partnered with Carousell Hong Kong to do a decluttering event for instant cash, and collected around 3,500 pieces of clothes. Majority of which are in almost-new condition. We are excited to officially launch our store and continue to expand more stores in Hong Kong.”

Singapore – Recommerce platform Carousell has announced the launch of its ‘Certified Luxury’ feature which aims at spotlighting second-hand luxury items on their platform, and convince users to make secondhand items first on their mind.

In the launch event for said feature, Gijs Verheijke, head of luxury at Carousell said that ‘Certified Luxury’ aims at making luxury items accessible to everyone, adding that by making secondhand an easy and trusted choice, they are allowing consumers to make the sustainable choice and practise circular consumption by choosing secondhand.

“Because second hand luxury is so much more affordable, it is often most people’s first interaction with, or entrance into buying luxury. We want to make that encounter with [second-hand] luxury easy and safe for anyone. And these are the ways we are doing that, with the launch of Certified Luxury,” he said.

He also added that in the same way, Carousell is about good deals, they also believe in providing access to luxury for all.

“With Certified Luxury, you get real luxury at a fraction of the cost, with trust and with the same quality assured. In this way, we allow for [second-hand] deals, with a first-rate experience’, giving our consumers the best of both worlds,” Verheijke said.

Carousell’s launch of ‘Certified Luxury’ builds on the platform’s continued mission of promoting second-hand items in the name of sustainability.

Singapore – In celebration of its 10th anniversary, leading multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia Carousell Group released the Carousell Recommerce Index (10th Anniversary Edition) revealing the sustainability impact its collective community has made by buying and selling secondhand items. 

Over the past decade, the Group’s users have extended the life cycle of millions of items, including: 76.8 million fashion items; 33.9 million electronics; 26.6 million hobby items and toys; 11.1 million home items and furniture; and 10.6 million babies & kids items. 

To further illustrate the impact, if we take the total number of used fashion listings on Carousell, we can provide every single person in Singapore with 13 outfits. Additionally, assuming all used electronics listed are iPhone Xs, the height when stacked together is the equivalent of over 23,500 times the height of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

The Recommerce Index also showed a study conducted by IAB and Carousell Media Group that Singaporeans topped the chart with 44% choosing “saving money” as their key motivations for buying secondhand.

The report also highlighted key trends in each market, specifically for Singapore:

  • Top 3 most popular categories to sell secondhand items are Fashion, Hobbies & Toys, Home & Furniture
  • Top 3 most popular secondhand category to browse are Fashion, Hobbies & Toys, Home & Furniture
  • All-time top 3 most searched keywords for secondhand items: Rolex, AG06 (Yahama Channel Mixer) and Road Bike

Recommerce refers to the selling and buying of previously-owned products, including both new and used in condition. The report covers data from 9 of Carousell Group’s family of brands across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan markets — Carousell, Cho Tot, Laku6, Mudah.my, OneKyat, One Shift, Ox Luxe, Ox Street, and Refash.

Since its inception in 2012 as a mobile-first app to make selling and buying underutilised items easier, Carousell has grown from a C2C classifieds marketplace into a multi-category platform for secondhand goods in Greater Southeast Asia. To accelerate the next decade of recommerce, the Group has been working on additional capabilities to offer more features and services to users that make buying secondhand items as trusted and convenient as buying brand new items.

Ng Chee Soon, managing director at Carousell Singapore, said, “Carousell was founded a decade ago with the mission of making secondhand the first choice. The Recommerce Index serves as a crucial guide to help us better understand the motivations behind our consumers’ behaviour, especially amidst the post-Covid economic uncertainty. With 1 in 3 Singaporeans using Carousell monthly, secondhand is even more accessible to everyone and we are excited to fuel the shift and for Carousell to drive recommerce growth in the Greater Southeast Asia region.” 

The Carousell Recommerce Index (10th anniversary edition) is available for download here.