Singapore-based on-line market Carousell is using a sustainability trend in Hong Kong, which has seen shoppers embrace second-hand items and maintain merchandise away from landfills. It helps to develop the marketplace for second-hand items in town.
Hongkonger’s rising consciousness of sustainability was a vivid spot in the Southeast Asia area and has helped the classifieds agency develop its second-hand listings in town, a trend which was anticipated to proceed even after Covid-19 recedes, Kevin Huang, the managing director of Carousell Hong Kong, stated in an interview.
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“Sustainability is the reason why we started, and this continues to be the reason why we’re here today. Our goal is to make buying and selling second-hand products … as frictionless as possible,” Huang stated.
“Hongkongers are becoming much more conscious about being environmentally friendly and sustainable,” he stated, including that it had turn into the primary cause for folks in town to purchase second-hand or used items, in contrast to cheaper costs.
Most respondents purchasing on Carousell did so for sustainability causes, quite than to get monetary savings, in accordance to a survey of greater than 23,000 Hong Kong shoppers in February carried out by Carousell Media Group and digital promoting physique IAB SEA+India.
Almost half of Hongkongers who’ve purchased second-hand items earlier than accomplish that for environmental causes, rating first among the many eight markets in South-East Asia that Carousell operates in, together with Singapore and Taiwan, in accordance to its Recommerce Index Report in November.
The quantity of searches for used items grew by greater than 45% in all age teams from 2020 to 2021, implying a societal shift in the direction of higher sustainability, Carousell stated in April. The quantity of second-hand listings on its platform in Hong Kong additionally elevated, by almost 60%, between 2019 and 2021.
Around one in 5 folks in Hong Kong use Carousell, and 85% of customers in town have made at the least one second-hand buy on the platform, in accordance to the corporate.
Merchants, such as sellers of furnishings, which ranked among the many platform’s high 5 classes with essentially the most searches in Hong Kong, have been tapping Carousell’s userbase with its choice for second-hand items.
Happyshop.hk, which sells second-hand furnishings, has seen as a lot as a 30% enhance in demand for used workplace desks and chairs over the previous two years for the reason that outbreak of the pandemic. Carousell’s platform has helped it discover two to three new patrons day by day over the interval, in accordance to proprietor Eve Ng.
“In the past, not too many people knew about second-hand shops in Hong Kong, and many would ask their friends (for old furniture). Second-hand furniture has grown in popularity, as more people have become aware about its environmental impact and for its cheaper price,” Ng stated, including that Carousell had offered the agency with an excellent avenue to attain its target market of second-hand furnishings patrons.
Furn.outlet, a furnishings wholesaler, has additionally tapped Carousell to promote items that had been placed on show or evenly broken, merchandise which could not have been offered and would in any other case have ended up in landfills, stated enterprise proprietor Gary Lui.
The gross sales of desks on Carousell have grown 20% to 30% for the reason that outbreak of Covid-19, serving to the corporate greater than triple its gross sales of the product throughout all platforms, Lui stated. – South China Morning Post
