From thrift to taste: Resale is reshaping how South Korean consumers shop

SEOUL – Despite weekly drops from fast-fashion brands and fast-moving trend cycles, more consumers in South Korea are shopping differently.

For Gen Z, shopping is less about browsing department stores or following platform rankings and more about “digging”, scouring second-hand platforms and shops to unearth pieces that match their taste.

That shift, driven by rising living costs and value-driven spending, has pushed second-hand consumption out of the margins and into the mainstream.

The numbers back it up. According to the Hana Institute of Finance, South Korea’s re-commerce market is estimated to have grown more than tenfold, from four trillion won (S$3.5 billion) in 2008 to 43 trillion won in 2025.

Cost savings remain the biggest draw, with multiple surveys citing lower prices as the top motivation for buying used items.

South Korean consumers are increasingly getting used to thrifting. In a survey of 1,000 people aged 13 to 59 by market researcher Embrain, 78 per cent of respondents said they had bought or sold used clothing, and 62 per cent said they viewed second-hand clothing as a natural option.

The global market is expanding quickly as well. Research and Markets projects that the global second-hand apparel market will more than double, from about US$199 billion (S$257 billion) in 2025 to US$486 billion in 2031.

Companies now handle the entire process, from collection and inspection to pricing, care and delivery, improving reliability compared with past person-to-person transactions.

“There is a growing perception that second-hand shopping goes beyond recession-driven consumption and is about spending on one’s own taste. It will establish itself as a new way of consuming fashion that extends the useful life of clothing,” a fashion industry official said.

Fashion companies are racing to expand. Musinsa Used, Musinsa’s second-hand service launched in September 2025, has seen transaction volume grow tenfold and its seller base increase thirtyfold in the first half of 2026.

“We put products through condition inspections and classify them into five grades. Offering authenticated, like-new second-hand products at reasonable prices generated word of mouth and helped bring in new customers,” a Musinsa official said.

Kolon FnC’s resale platform OLO Relay Market, which initially accepted only 19 of the company’s own brands, now handles 176. Transaction volume in the first half of 2026 grew about 4.4 times compared with the second half of 2022, when the service launched. The company released a mobile app for the platform in July.

LF has expanded its resale platform L-Re Market from 15 in-house brands to about 170, spanning golf wear and outdoor categories alongside contemporary labels. Transaction volume in June rose about 80 per cent from September 2025.

Department stores have joined the race. Hyundai Department Store introduced its Buy Back resale service in July 2025 and has since run related pop-up stores, while Lotte Department Store operates a Green Reward programme that exchanges clothing for points.

Shinsegae International’s menswear brand Man on the Boon held a vintage market at its flagship store in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, from July 15 to 19, in collaboration with four vintage speciality shops from South Korea and the US.

“Male customers are increasingly expressing their taste and discernment through fashion. We carefully curated vintage shops from home and abroad, so visitors can enjoy the fun of discovering hidden treasures,” a Shinsegae International official said. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK