Interest rises in secondhand objects amid pandemic

ISTANBUL - Demirören News Agency

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has brought the world to a halt, consumer behavior has changed massively over the last year, where people are now more inclined toward buying online from the comfort of their homes while the craze for secondhand items, especially furniture, antiques, and accessories, increasing substantially due to affordable price range.

The demand is high, especially in the furniture and accessories categories, said Emir Tümen, the founder of the online shopping website Dekopasaj.com.

He noted that their business sales have grown by 300 percent during the pandemic period.

Over the last year, people started buying furniture and antique objects, especially in secondhand markets, because they are more affordable.

Emphasizing that there were different effects of the pandemic on business models in 2020, Tümen said, “Our model is a model we call end-to-end. As a marketplace, we support both buyers and sellers at every step. Everything is online; there is no face-to-face meeting. Popular products are bought by credit card by messaging on the platform. Then we manage the whole process. With the start of the pandemic, we all went into a life of quarantine. So, people’s transfer to bring their business to the digital environment has become much faster.”

He said that generally, newlyweds buy secondhand furniture, and the Internet has become the digital showcase of sellers.

“We closed the year 2020 with a 300 percent growth in terms of turnover. At the same time, because we are a marketplace, this has been achieved with a very serious increase in the advertisements. We delivered secondhand goods to almost every province in Turkey,” he added.

Can Togay and Barış Hoca, the owners of secondhand shops on the Asian side of Istanbul’s Kadıköy district, said that people, who want to make changes to their homes without going out, have switched to buying secondhand goods online because they are more economical.

Togay, 40, who also sells his products online, said that sales increased during the pandemic period.

“In this period, we have seen that as people sit at home, they get bored with the same things and do more research on social media. In parallel, the number of our followers increased. Therefore, we have uploaded all of our products online to make it easier,” he said.

“Consumers saw that secondhand items were not bad products and were of higher quality, with affordable prices than the products sold in the stores,” he added.

Stating that certain criteria should be considered in order to sell online, Togay said, “Since I started working with Dekopasaj, I have uploaded many photos to the system. I provided information about the features of the products. We have a wide variety of products. I am regularly uploading new products. Followers also like it very much.”

Noting the most preferred products, Togay said, “We make sales in the accessories and furniture categories, and mainly bookshelves and desks are purchased. We sell many bookshelves. There is also an interest in metal items. Metal medicine cabinets and industrial lighting are among the examples in the accessories category.”

Hoca, 45, said that many people look at online shopping sites rather than going out for shopping.

“Nobody can visit the shops in this pandemic period. Surfing on the Internet is more practical and healthier. For this reason, our online sales have increased. Currently, paintings, historical artifacts, furniture, especially desks are being sold more,” Hoca said.

“We are also selling live on Instagram. People also participate in online auctions. Recently, we have also started selling paintings, frames, and mirrors,” he added.