Carousell Group and Cho Tot reveals impact of secondhand market

To celebrate its 10^th anniversary, multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia Carousell Group released the Carousell Recommerce Index (10^th Anniversary Edition), revealing the sustainability impact its collective community has made buying and selling secondhand items.

Launched in Vietnam in 2013, Cho Tot is the leading Re-commerce platform in Vietnam with more than 10 million monthly users buying and selling in 60 categories

Re-commerce refers to the selling and buying of previously-owned products, including both new and used in condition. The report covers data from nine of Carousell Group's 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 re-commerce, 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.

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, the number of used fashion listings can provide outfits for 70 per cent of the Vietnamese population. Additionally, assuming all used electronics listed are iPhone Xs, the height, when stacked together, is the equivalent of over 10,000 Landmark 81 buildings.

Hoang Thi Minh Ngoc, CGO of Cho Tot - Carousell in Vietnam, said, “Every month, more than 1 million used items are listed for reselling, and Cho Tot users help reduce hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 released into the environment by limiting the exploitation of new production."

"To make second-hand shopping the first choice in Vietnam, Cho Tot has been striving to provide a convenient re-commerce shopping experience for Vietnamese and inspire them to actively buy and sell their pre-loved items as a responsible lifestyle towards sustainable development.”

In 2022, Cho Tot cooperated with UNDP and ISPONRE to launch the art exhibition “New lease of the second-hand” with all artworks made from 100 per cent secondhand items to raise awareness of the environmental benefits of reusing and circular consumption. Cho Tot also encouraged more Vietnamese to start buying and selling secondhand with the project "One second-hand item, one tree for sustainable livelihoods."

In this campaign, when users buy or sell a secondhand item, they also contribute a Bat Do bamboo shoot seedling on their behalf to help create sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minorities in Tan Xuan commune, Son La province, Vietnam.

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