2022: Adapting to a post-covid world

With many business levels gradually returning to a pre-pandemic norm, we cannot discount how the pandemic has changed our way of life. Covid-19 was a catalyst that brought about a massive shift in consumer behaviour, especially toward e-commerce. The quick adoption of technology would have taken years to have gotten to where it is now without the pandemic. Businesses had to adapt fast or face difficulties staying afloat. If anything, the pandemic taught us not to take things for granted and to always be forward-thinking.

Here’s our Carousell year-end round-up of trends, behaviours, and insights we’ve gathered from our marketplace over the year 2022.

Carousell saw a 5% increase in monthly active users compared to 2021 even as covid restrictions ease in Singapore and many are returning to retail shopping. Demand for online shopping on Carousell’s marketplace remains strong as awareness continues to grow for the secondhand market exacerbated by the pandemic.

While shoppers are motivated by good deals, they’re also willing to spend a sizeable amount during sale season. This means sellers need to provide good value while pushing for their high-value items. Otherwise, individual products can be bundled together to make up a high-value package priced at a discount so consumers feel like they’re getting a value-for-money deal.

One example is discounted “mystery boxes” with guaranteed items and surprise items, adding the thrill of suspense to the feel-good of discovering a good deal. With the majority browsing 2-4 weeks in advance, consider marketing deals and promotions at least 4 weeks in advance.

Products to consider marketing during this period: Fashion, home decor, giftable items, and packaging or wrapping services.

In general, businesses with a higher number of listings utilise Custom Collections more as it helps sellers organise their listings and buyers to browse based on category. In an industry where consumers’ demands are increasing, an auto-reply feature is almost impossible not to have. Consumers are quick to jump to competitors should their basic needs not be met – which is often just additional information they were unable to acquire from your listing description.

Thus, while being a relatively new feature on Carousell, Quick and Auto-reply have seen a quick take-up rate as it provides sellers the ease of sending fixed messages to answer commonly asked questions without having to manually reply to individual inquiries. This also helps in giving context to buyers quickly.