Korea leads global online shopping trend for used luxury goods

South Koreans are leading the trend of buying used luxury goods online with top-end products such as Rolex watches and Hermes bags among the hottest items on Gugus, the country’s largest online platform for secondhand luxury goods. 

According to Euromonitor, a research company, South Korea has the highest penetration of online purchases of luxury goods globally.

In its “2023 Voice of the Industry” survey conducted last year on about 25,000 consumers worldwide, the proportion of South Korean consumers who responded that they use online channels when purchasing used products reached 57.5%.

Turkey (56.4%), China (53.1%), Germany (51.4%) and Spain (50.7%) came next.

The rise in online transactions for used high-end items reflects the desire of millennials and Gen Z, those born between the 1980s and the early 2000s, who want to own luxury goods at relatively reasonable prices.

Gugus saw transactions on its platform jumping 16% to 62.4 billion won ($46 million) in the first quarter of this year, its highest-ever for a single quarter, compared to the year-earlier period. Clothes and jewelry led the sales growth, up 24% and 38%, respectively.

Particularly, transactions of Rolex watches climbed 31% on-year, with sales of Hermes products up 21%.

“With a wide assortment of top-end brand products such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel ranging from clothing to shoes and accessories, we were able to differentiate ourselves from other platforms,” said a Gugus official.

It is also expanding its offline footprint to attract luxury goods buyers who want to personally look over the items before purchasing. This month, it opened its 26th offline store.

Write to Ji-Yoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com


Yeonhee Kim edited this article