South Korea's secondhand clothing market was valued at about $318 million (approximately 450 billion KRW) last year and is projected to grow to $423 million (approximately 600 billion KRW) by 2032. Faced with this growth, fashion companies are no longer content to let secondhand clothes remain in scattered person-to-person transactions; they are stepping in themselves to run collection and resale businesses.

Key Points

  • South Korea's secondhand clothing market was valued at $318 million last year and is projected to reach $423 million by 2032; Musinsa's secondhand business saw transaction value rise 45% month over month in August.
  • Kolon FnC's OLO Relay Market has more than 170 partner brands, and its transaction value in the first half of this year was about 4.4 times what it was when the business launched in the second half of 2022.
  • Sweden's Selly (Selfy/Sellpy) is still loss-making 12 years after founding, while Vinted, which takes an asset-light C2C approach, posted revenue of €1.1 billion and net profit of €62 million last year.

Collecting and Selling It Themselves: Cost Is a Hard Hurdle

The "Musinsa Used" model operated by Musinsa is fairly typical: sellers send in clothes, and the platform handles everything from pickup, inspection, photography, listing, delivery, and customer service. The company says more than 20,000 sellers joined each month over the past five months, transaction value rose 45% month over month in August, and order volume increased 25%. Kolon Industries' FnC division has since this year expanded the buyback scope of "OLO Relay Market," launched in 2022, to other brands, and the number of brands covered has exceeded 170; transaction value in the first half of this year was about 4.4 times what it was when the business launched (second half of 2022). Consumers who hand in old clothes do not receive cash but points usable on Kolon Mall. LF Corp. operates "L.Market," which trades secondhand goods from its Hazzys, Daks, Maestro and other brands, and customers who submit clothes receive "L.Reward" usable on LF Mall.

The problem is that secondhand goods and brand-new goods follow two completely different business logics. For 100 new shirts of the same design, one set of photos and one product description is enough; but 100 secondhand shirts are each in different condition, and every piece must be checked for stains and damage, washed or repaired, re-photographed, and priced individually, while warehousing and delivery costs rise accordingly. More troublesome still, secondhand clothes sell for little—even if a piece sells for only tens of thousands of KRW, the work of inspection and listing is no less than for expensive goods. The lower the price, the heavier the relative burden of process costs; as transaction volume increases, the number of items to handle rises in tandem, and improving profitability is not easy.

Two Models, Two Outcomes

Overseas cases offer a comparison. Swedish secondhand fashion platform Selly (Selfy), about 80% owned by the H&M group, lets sellers simply send in old goods without worry, with sorting, inspection, photography, pricing, warehousing, and delivery mostly borne by the platform. Founded in 2014, the company has still not escaped losses. Europe's Vinted took another route: sellers list goods themselves and transact directly with buyers, and the platform does not handle clothes item by item. Its revenue comes from fees charged to buyers, usually 5% of the item price plus a fixed $0.7 fee; a service in which sellers pay to place items higher in search results also contributes revenue. Last year Vinted's transaction value was €10.8 billion, up 47% year on year, with revenue of €1.1 billion and net profit of €62 million. Its choice was to invest in logistics networks and payment systems rather than personally managing every secondhand garment.

The divergence between the two shows one thing: growth in the secondhand market and companies making money through self-operated secondhand clothing are two separate questions. The more steps a company handles on consumers' behalf, the more rigidly operating costs rise; conversely, merely connecting buyers and sellers can keep process costs down.

Doing It Even Without Profit: The Goal Is Repeat Customers

Given the heavy burden, why are South Korean fashion companies still doubling down? Beyond the sales revenue from old clothes themselves, what they value more is drawing old customers back to their own platforms. Both Kolon FnC and LF Corp. choose to pay for collected old clothes with points in their own malls rather than cash, and Kolon FnC even buys old clothes from other brands to reach consumers who were not originally its customers. An LF official said that as of February this year, the repurchase rate of L.Market users on LF Mall was 34%, and the usage rate of issued L.Reward reached 73%. A fashion industry insider said every secondhand item must go through inspection and merchandising, and rising transaction volume will not immediately improve profitability, but given that this can bring existing customers back to corporate platforms and even drive new product purchases, it is inappropriate to judge the value of the resale business solely by sales or profit. Whether the fashion industry can achieve both profitability and growth in the secondhand resale market remains to be seen.

Source: Korean resale fashion grows as brands chase loyalty but fight costs - CHOSUNBIZ · Originally published 2026-10-12