Niche recommerce takes the fight to Carousell in SEA

In September 2021, Phuong Nguyen quit as CEO of Be Group, the Vietnamese ride-hailing challenger to Grab, to co-found recommerce tech platform Piktina.

With the slogan “not new, just original,” Piktina aims to pioneer sustainable fashion in Vietnam, where fast fashion began taking off only a few years ago.

The move makes sense for Nguyen, who has extensive retail experience in Vietnam, France, and the US. The recommerce story in Vietnam is “similar to that of ride-hailing 10 years ago,” she says. “We’re still in the stage of raising awareness among consumers.”

Outside the used-car industry, which is dominated by unicorns Carro and Carsome, classifieds giant Carousell is at the forefront of conversations about “making secondhand the first choice” in Southeast Asia.

In November 2021, Tech in Asia wrote this piece about the company’s big move into recommerce after it acquired Ox Street, a Singapore-based marketplace for buying and selling sneakers. Since then, Carousell has snatched up secondhand fashion retailer Refash just two months ago and gadget recommerce platform Laku6 on Tuesday.

Buying three resale platforms in less than a year shows how aggressive Carousell has been about going deeper into recommerce.

But with big unicorns like Carousell muscling their way into this space, how much room does that leave for smaller startups like Piktina?

The power of Gen Z consumers

One of Piktina’s inspirations is Depop, which primarily targets Gen Z consumers. The UK-based fashion resale platform, which has more than 26 million registered users worldwide, says 90% of its active users are under 26 years old.

To illustrate Depop’s influence, The Guardian exclaimed that US-based Etsy’s acquisition of Depop for US$1.6 billion in 2021 made “the British tech sector look secondhand.”

By 2025, Gen Z and millennials could account for half of the consumers in Asia, according to McKinsey & Company. Piktina’s Nguyen estimates that Vietnam is home to about 33 million of them.

A growing number of these consumers are not only environmentally conscious, but they’re also ditching fast fashion. This makes them solid targets for recommerce companies. But sustainability aside, they also have a practical reason for buying secondhand: They can’t afford brand-new stuff – at least, not yet.

Tran Bach Tra, a 24-year-old office worker in Hanoi, says that most of the items in her closet come from thrift shops in Ho Chi Minh City. She learned about pre-owned clothes about four years ago, through YouTubers like Emma Chamberlain and American TV shows like Friends.

Going super niche

The next investment-worthy trend?