After the launch of the second-half public recruitment season, demand for interview clothing on the Korean secondhand trading platform Karrot (Korean name "당근," meaning Carrot Market) has clearly heated up. In the one-month period from August 16 to September 15, transactions for "interview outfits" on the platform grew 102% compared with the previous month, with trading rising across the board for interview-related clothing and accessories, from full suits to shirts, ties, and dress shoes.

By category, searches for "formal suit sets" rose 68% and transactions increased 70%; during the same period, transactions for "shirts" and "ties" grew 43% and 40% respectively; transactions for "interview dress shoes" rose 36%, and searches for "interview skirts" increased 31%. Demand was not only concentrated in suit sets that allow buyers to get both top and bottom in one purchase, but also spread to individual items that can be paired with existing clothing.

This rebound is directly related to seasonal factors such as Korean companies continuing to post job openings and universities holding job fairs on campus—precisely the period when demand for preparing interview attire is released in concentrated form.

Notably, in addition to clothing condition and price, transaction posts also featured sellers sharing their "success" stories. According to Karrot, some sellers, after successfully finding employment, listed the clothes they wore to interviews that year and attached supportive messages such as "Lucky clothes that passed the interview after one wear—I wish you definite success," passing on clothes that brought good results to the next job seeker. This neighborhood-style secondhand trading characteristic means that for the seller, the use value of an interview outfit declines, while for another job seeker it is a rigid necessity, and the transaction process also conveys experience and encouragement along the way.

To reduce friction in secondhand transactions, Karrot has also continued to update its features. The "Find My Item's Price" feature launched last year uses AI to analyze item photos and suggest a selling price, and is integrated with an AI copywriting feature to help sellers automatically generate posts including category, brand, and characteristics; the subsequently launched "Buy Now" connects payment through delivery, supporting users who have difficulty coordinating meeting times or prefer not to meet in person, and adopts a secure payment method in which the platform settles with the seller only after the buyer confirms receipt.

A Karrot representative said that with the arrival of the second-half hiring season, transactions for interview clothing have increased, and scenes have also appeared of users carrying their passing experience to cheer on the next job seeker, and the platform will continue to improve the user experience in the future so that users can find what they need and complete transactions smoothly.

For the secondhand resale industry, this set of data shows that cyclical life milestones such as job hunting and school enrollment create stable seasonal demand peaks, and high-ticket categories such as job-interview formalwear that are "idle after one use" are especially suited to resale circulation; turning sellers' success stories into trust endorsements for products is also a unique asset that distinguishes community-based resale platforms from ordinary e-commerce.

Source: "합격한 정장 입고 취업 기운 받아가세요"…당근 '면접룩' 거래 2배 껑충 · Originally published 2026-09-26