A "K-recommerce" market, in which overseas consumers seek out and buy used goods once traded within South Korea, is expanding rapidly. Demand for K-pop merchandise and limited-edition fashion items, centered on Japan, is turning resales of Korean secondhand goods into a new export market.
Cross-border shopping agent Delivered Korea said its transaction data showed that global recommerce sales rose 37.2% in the first quarter from a year earlier. The increase widened in the second quarter to 59.2% year-on-year.
By category, fashion items accounted for the largest share of first-half sales at 45.9%, including clothing and shoes as well as jewelry and bags. K-pop-related goods followed at 29.6%, led by photo cards, albums and official merchandise. Toys, a category that includes games, toys and books, made up 14.0%.
Fashion and K-pop goods together accounted for 75.5% of total sales. The company said overseas consumers are focusing less on cheap used goods and more on items that are hard to find now — limited editions and discontinued products.
In effect, products that are easy to obtain through peer-to-peer trading within Korea become scarce items abroad. K-pop artists' photo cards, albums and official merchandise, along with limited-edition fashion items sold only in Korea, are prime examples.
Overseas sales of goods traded through major domestic recommerce platforms such as Bunjang, Poka Market and Kream have also grown steadily. A structure is taking shape in which items used by domestic consumers are bought by foreign fans and collectors.
Japan the Top Customer as Buyers Seek Out Korea's Secondhand Market
By country, Japanese consumers had an overwhelming presence, accounting for the largest share of global recommerce sales in the first half at 44.2%. The United States followed at 24.1%, and Canada at 3.2%. Japan, the U.S. and Canada together made up 71.5% of the total.
For Japanese consumers in particular, obtaining K-pop merchandise or fashion items traded in Korea directly through domestic platforms is not easy, and their use of purchasing- and shipping-agent services is seen as rising.
Delivered Korea runs a service that provides a Korean address and supports purchases and shipping so that overseas consumers can buy Korean goods. Through Delivered Partners, a service for sellers, it helps process overseas orders, payments and shipping in one step, and it also offers a consolidated packaging service for sending multiple items at once.
The industry is taking note of how the popularity of K-culture is spreading beyond new products into the secondhand and limited-edition markets. Rather than a simple sale of used goods, a new type of export market is forming that sells the scarcity of Korea-only items to overseas consumers.
"Global consumers are now showing strong interest not only in new products but also in Korean secondhand goods such as K-pop merchandise, fashion items and limited editions," said Kim Jong-ik, CEO of Delivered Korea. "This shows that overseas sales opportunities for domestic sellers are expanding beyond new products into the recommerce market."
