October 6, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s online secondhand market was once a network of consumer-driven trades, loosely overseen by companies offering little more than secure payments and basic fraud checks.
Today, the market is being commercialized with unusual speed, swelling to a projected 43 trillion won ($30.6 billion) this year — nearly double its size in just four years — according to the Korea Internet & Security Agency.
Hence the retail platform surge. From peer-to-peer swaps to business-run ventures, all are vying for a sliver of a booming market, especially as cash-strapped consumers turn to secondhand goods or resell used clothes to recoup costs.
Unlike traditional consumer-to-consumer marketplaces, newer players are embracing “recommerce” — the business of buying used goods for resale — as a streamlined model designed for a growing circle of consumers fluent in both convenience and thrift.
In August, Musinsa, the nation’s largest online fashion platform, launched Musinsa Used, a service that handles every step of resale, from pickup and cleaning to photography, pricing and delivery.
Within just two weeks, the service had attracted over 10,000 sellers and shipped more than 34,000 garment bags nationwide to collect secondhand items.
Industry insiders credit its early momentum to the platform’s end-to-end convenience.
“Company-led resale brings a new level of stability and trust to the market,” said one industry insider. “If it stretches past domestic demand to capture global buyers, it could emerge as an export industry all its own.”
In a similar vein, fashion retailer LF Corp. launched L RE:Market in September, a resale platform that lets customers trade in pre-owned apparel for store credit, with the company overseeing the entire resale chain.
Other major players are harnessing their own ecosystems to branch into resale.
Naver’s Kream, originally focused on limited-edition items, has rebranded its boutique section as vintage and expanded into the high-end resale market, sourcing inventory directly through CHIC, a Naver-affiliated luxury goods platform.
Retail giant Coupang has stepped into the secondhand market through R.Lux, its luxury e-commerce arm, offering authenticated pre-owned items from online luxury firm Farfetch. The platform does not yet feature a dedicated resale category, but users can find listings by searching “pre-owned.”
“Since Farfetch has long handled pre-owned luxury sales, we’ve integrated it with R.Lux and are gradually rolling out secondhand listings as we stabilize the system,” said a Coupang official.
Once trailblazers, Korea’s leading resale platforms are steering a new course, not only in the market they pioneered at home, but overseas as well.
Joonggonara, long centered on peer-to-peer trades, moved into the business-to-consumer resale space in April. Its new support center for professional sellers offers integrated order and delivery management tools along with real-time settlement services.
But it is Karrot — the nation’s largest secondhand app operated by Danggeun Market— that is undergoing the most sweeping transformation, and doing so at full tilt.
With more than 40 million users in its orbit, Karrot is evolving into a full-fledged lifestyle ecosystem that stretches well beyond used goods, piloting services ranging from real estate listings by licensed brokers to a commission-free food takeout marketplace.
Crossing borders, Karrot has planted its digital flag in four countries, most notably Canada, where it has gained the strongest traction. The platform surpassed 2 million users there earlier this year. As part of its localization push, Karrot has rolled out Canada-specific features, including an artificial intelligence tool that drafts listings and suggests prices for sellers.
“With the Korean market nearing saturation, it seems inevitable that local platforms are looking overseas,” one industry insider said, noting that secondhand goods, less bound by price sensitivity, are especially appealing as Korean culture draws global attention.
Karrot’s new ventures may have taken off, but how they will land is uncertain, however.
It posted strong standalone results last year, with revenue reaching 189.1 billion won, up 48 percent on-year, while operating profit surged 3.8 times to 37.6 billion won. However, on a consolidated basis, which includes its overseas subsidiaries, operating profit narrowed significantly to 2.5 billion won.
Taking a different tack overseas, Bungaejangter is pursuing a partnership-driven expansion with cross-border platforms such as Harumio and Bringko, relying on third-party logistics and e-commerce integrations.
The platform said its cross-border resale service surpassed 2 million monthly active users in September, five times the figure recorded a year earlier. Global transaction volume rose 333 percent on-year in the first half, while international orders climbed 345 percent, driven by K-pop photo cards, dolls and figurines.
“This milestone shows that our global platform is successfully building a recommerce ecosystem,” a company official said.
Like Karrot, however, its promise of robust growth on the coattails of Korean culture raises more questions than certainties. Last year, Bungaejangter posted solid growth, with revenue up 31.5 percent to 44.9 billion won on-year, even as it logged an operating loss of 19.6 billion won — its fifth straight year in the red.
Some in the industry are pushing for policy reforms as the global boom in cross-border direct sales picks up steam, including extending the input tax deduction system to secondhand transactions. The system allows businesses to deduct part of the value-added tax on purchases made without formal invoices.
“If applied, K-recommerce products could become more competitive in overseas markets,” one industry insider noted.
