Demand for used bicycles surges, Carousell, the Singapore version of "Xianyu", becomes popular

Malaysia becomes Carousell’s second largest market

It is understood that Carousell is a smartphone and web-based consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer platform for buying and selling new and used goods.

Carousell is headquartered in Singapore and currently operates in Singapore , Malaysia , Indonesia , Taiwan , Hong Kong , Australia and the Philippines .

During the epidemic, the demand for bicycles has increased as consumers have reduced the frequency of taking public transportation.

Carousell said that since the fourth quarter of 2020 , there has been a craze for buying bicycles online, and bicycle sales have continued to increase. This trend continued in the first two months of 2021 .

Among them, the Hong Kong market ranked first in sales in the Asia-Pacific region, with nearly 40,000 bicycles sold in 2020. The Malaysian market followed closely with sales of nearly 18,000 bicycles .

This upward trend has made Malaysia the second largest market on the Carousell platform.

Compared with the first half of 2020, Carousell's average monthly bicycle transaction volume increased by 44% in the second half of the year, with an average of more than 6,000 bicycles sold per month. The Malaysian market has remained stable, with more than 2,000 transactions per month .

Many merchants have also launched products in line with this trend, causing the market's transaction volume to continue to rise .

Second-hand bicycle transactions accounted for 70.29%

It is worth noting that in these areas covered by Carousell’s business, second-hand bicycles are the first choice of consumers, accounting for 70.29% of the total transaction volume .

The share of second-hand bicycle transactions in the two markets of Malaysia and Hong Kong even exceeded the above trend. Among them, the transaction volume of second-hand bicycles in Malaysia accounted for 76.04% of the total transactions , and that in Hong Kong accounted for 72.46%.

Consumer demand for bicycles remains high in 2021, as evidenced by the number of searches on the platform, with Malaysia seeing over 160,000 monthly bicycle searches and Singapore seeing over 1 million searches.

Carousell noted that this is in line with the overall search trends in Malaysia, with Google’s “2020 Year in Search: Malaysia” report showing a 250% increase in searches for the term “cycling”.

Not only that, Carousell’s sales data also coincides with local media reports on a surge in interest in cycling, with one media outlet saying that one bicycle retailer’s sales increased by 300% during the lockdown .

Since last year, more and more consumers have been fond of outdoor sports, and bicycles have become the first choice due to their convenience and speed. At the same time, the demand for bicycle peripheral products and accessories is also surging. Interested sellers can pay more attention to the market potential of such products.

E-commerce platform

Southeast Asia