Carousell promotes sustainable shopping habits with real-life experiences

Online new and second-hand goods marketplace Carousell has launched a brand campaign to promote alternative spending habits during the year-end peak sale season, featuring real-life experiences from four Carousell users.

Also known as “Masters of secondhand”, the new brand campaign combines Carousell’s continued emphasis on sustainable shopping habits, Hong Kong consumers’ love for efficiency and value consciousness, with prudent budgeting due to recession concerns, to promote the resourcefulness of buying preloved items.  

The creative campaign rides on HongKongers’ love for learning the latest life hacks and tips, from academic purposes to every aspect of life. Carousell is therefore sharing tips and benefits of shopping secondhand during this campaign, and showing how this purchasing behaviour can relate to consumer concerns about cost-efficiency and sustainability in consumers' daily lives. 

To make this campaign more relatable and highlight that everyone and anyone can shop smart, Carousell has invited four Carousell users Jessica Shih , Melissa Leung, Desiree Wong and Chris Leung to share their real-life examples in a series of ads, promoting how Carousell supports a more sustainable way of consumption. Chris Leung will be focusing on collecting secondhand trainers, Melissa Leung will be a secondhand furniture collector, whereas Wong will be specialising in used baby care products and Shih focusing on used sportswear. It will be promoted via out-of-home means of advertising next week.

This comes as Carousell's latest survey, which set out to explore the spending habits of Hong Kong consumers during times of economic decline, found that over 80% of consumers have increased their secondhand shopping during the most recent macro-financial downturn, and that 86% of respondents over 45 years of age shop for secondhand items every three months on average.

The survey also revealed 62% of respondents consider buying more secondhand items during times of economic decline, with close to 90% of respondents stating they feel positive-to-neutral towards the idea of secondhand items. The top three categories that come into consumers’ minds when considering secondhand purchases include hobbies and toys, furniture and home living and video games. The results also showed that over 90% of respondents believed that secondhand goods are essentially interchangeable with new goods. 

“Carousell stays committed to supporting our local community in challenging times, and we are aware that the economic downturn is affecting spending habits of consumers in Hong Kong,” said Kevin Huang, managing director of Carousell Hong Kong. “We are delighted to witness the rise of value for secondhand items in consumers’ eyes, and have become top-of-mind in their purchase journey. Carousell is determined to provide a trusted and user-friendly platform for consumers and merchants in order to inspire and empower secondhand purchases. In addition, we want to make it easier for consumers to find high-quality secondhand goods, not only to save money, but also to promote a more sustainable way of living.”

Jess Shih, studio director at RE/NATION, has been a long-time user of Carousell, especially for buying sportswear for her job. She said: “Brand new items usually come first in people’s mind when buying sportswear, but after using Carousell, I realise I can still buy branded items that are in like-new condition where money is saved and is more sustainable.”

Melissa Leung, an associate director at a real estate company who has been a long-time user of Carousell, was recently able to get a sofa for her home for free. Sharing her experience, Leung said: “Recently I got this sofa for free as the owner felt bad throwing it away. The sofa is as new as a brand new item and it does not even have a scratch on it. Imagine if this sofa was thrown to the landfill, that would be a total waste. This Carousell experience makes me realise there is a more sustainable way of buying items.”

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