How to Buy and Sell Used Goods with Karrot 당근마켓

What is 당근마켓?

Do you need a new couch? Or are you itching to get rid of the blue dress you just don’t wear anymore? Then, you should look into downloading 당근마켓 or Karrot! 

당근마켓 is a popular C2C (customer to customer) platform to buy and sell new or secondhand items. This can be anything from clothes to furniture to food (unexpired) to plants! It’s a sustainable way to get rid of anything you don’t use or wear anymore and also, look for things that you want or need. 

The co-founders of Karrot used to work at big IT companies where colleagues would buy and sell things to each other very actively. This is where the idea for the service came about! 

Karrot has been downloaded 8 million times with monthly transactions hitting 42 billion won on average. Not to mention, it has garnered up to 6.6 million users!

What are the perks of using Karrot?

당근마켓 is extremely user-friendly and has a lot of perks. Firstly, it determines your location and shows you sellers as close as 5km from you. Secondly, you can also register a second location if you work elsewhere or are planning to move to a different area. The main idea is that you get to make short-distance deals, cutting down on travel time, and easily securing transactions in your own neighborhood! You can think of it like going to a market near your home, virtually.

Great! So how do you sign up?

Signing up is free and easy! First, download the app on your phone either through Google Play or the App Store. The app is available in English (UK) or Korean. 
First, you’ll input and verify your nearest neighborhood. You can either search by area or postcode or turn on your location settings. As mentioned earlier, you can choose two neighborhoods. This is a great feature because you can interchange between the two neighborhoods depending on where you want to buy or sell! You’ll also notice that there is a bar to adjust the visibility range for your posts (how near or how far you are willing to sell). 
Then you can continue to register by entering your phone number and receiving a verification code. If you need to login in the future, all you need to do is enter the phone number you registered with and receive a verification code! Quick and easy. 

Karrot Seller’s Guide 

(Credit: https://www.etnews.com/20160322000150?m=1)

1. Take good pictures! 

If you want to sell something on Karrot, the first thing you want to do is to take clear, detailed and accurate pictures of the item. For example, if you want to sell a jacket, make sure to take pictures of the tag, inner layer, outer layer and a full shot. Pictures are VERY important because this is how you’ll capture the attention of potential buyers. 

On the app, you’ll see a pencil icon that says “post”. Click on it and you’ll be able to upload your pictures. You can upload up to 10 pictures. 

2. Make an eye-catching title

The next step is to enter a post title. This could be something like “spring jacket size US 8” or “two person wooden dining table”. Basically, you want to create a title that summarizes what you are selling. Including the size, brand, color or any other descriptive words tells potential buyers exactly what you are trying to sell, so it’s a good idea to include some of this in your title. It’ll also boost the visibility of your post in the search engine (keywords). 

3. Choose a category

After entering a post title, choose a category to list your item under. For example, if you are selling a camera it would go under “디지털/가전” or “digital/home appliances”. If you are selling curtains, it would go under “가구/인테리어” or “furniture/interior”. 

4. Enter a price! 

Then comes the pricing. You can choose to enter a price or not enter a price. If you choose to enter a price, it must be in Korean won. Also, you can check if you want to make the price negotiable or not.

If you want to be a good samaritan and give away goods for FREE, just put “0” next to the price and it will automatically change to “무료나눔” or “free giveaway”. 

5. Tell buyers what your item actually is! 

Lastly, type in a short description of your item. In this section, make sure to include things like: 

• The condition of your item

• How many times it’s been worn 

• The original price 

• Brand 

• Any small marks or defects buyers should be aware of (include a picture)

• Size or measurements 

• Color, design, texture 

• Where you are willing to meet up (optional) 

After you’ve completed everything, you can choose a neighborhood for posting. Then, click “Done” in the upper right corner! And you are good to go! 

6. What happens after you post? 

When your post goes up, buyers in and close to your neighborhood can now view your item. You can track how many “조회” or views its gotten on the bottom left corner of your post. 

If someone is interested in your item, they will message you in your inbox. You can chat with the potential buyer and set up a good time and date to complete the transaction OR shipment. If you’ve both agreed upon a time and date, there is a feature to “save the time and date” which will alert both parties 30 minutes before the meet-up time. It’s a good idea to turn on your notifications for the Karrot app so that you can receive alerts! 

Once you have saved a time and date, you can change your post setting to “Reserved”. It will notify people that your item has been reserved. Once sold, you can then change the setting to “Sold” and it will go into your Sales History.

7. What else should I know about? 

The chat also has other features, such as: leave chat, report, block, mute chat, disapprove and give positive feedback. These features, as you can guess, are pretty self-explanatory. 

After every transaction, you can rate and give feedback on the buyer (vice versa). These ratings are important because it will legitimize your account and make you a reliable seller. 

If your item is NOT selling, don’t worry! You can BOOST your item once every 3 days and for a total of 10 times. This will pull your item up to the top of the search engine. 

Lastly, you can edit, hide or delete your post at any time!

Karrot Buyer’s Guide 

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1. Search for a product! 

Searching for a product is simple! You can either choose to look up a specific item in the search bar (top of the app) or you can click on “categories”. When searching for an item, you can set the category, price range and distance from you. 

The categories page is well-organized into subgroups, where you can look for items within that specific category. For example, if you are looking for magazines, you would click on “도서/티켓/음반” or “books/tickets/music records”. 

2. Save a keyword to alert you in the future! 

Sometimes, you can’t really find just what you’re looking for but you want to wait it out and see if new products will pop up or if seller’s will lower their price. If there is a keyword or a specific product that you want to get alerts for, there’s an option to SAVE!

You can do this by typing in a keyword into the search bar. On the top of the page, it will say “Set alert for _________”. Click on this and it will alert you whenever a post comes up with this keyword. OR you can simply go to “Settings” > “Keyword Alerts” and save whatever keywords you want at one time. 

3. Favorites! 

If you like something but don’t want to take the leap yet, there will be a little heart in the post. Click on the heart and it will save the item to your favorites list, which you can access in your settings! 

4. I am interested in buying! 

If you find an item you would like to purchase, simply click “Chat” on the bottom right corner. You can then begin to chat with the seller, negotiate and set up a time and date to complete the transaction! 

Next to the seller’s ID, you’ll see his/her neighborhood rating. If you click on the seller’s ID, you can find other items he/she is selling, reviews, verified location, as well as response rate. This is a good way to read up on the seller before making a transaction! 

How to Report a Post or User

If you want to report a post, you can click on the 3 vertical dots on the top right of your screen. Click “Report” and it will take you to a “Report post” page. On the page, select why you want to report. It will read like this: 

• 판매금지 품목이에요 It is a prohibited item.

• 중고거래 게시글이 아니에요 It’s not a secondhand transaction post.

• 전문 판매업자 같아요 It seems like a professional dealer.

• 기타 사유 선택 Other reason

You can report a user in two ways. The first is through their post, as stated above. The second way is by reporting them through their ID page. You may also BLOCK a user through their ID page. Again, click on the 3 vertical dots on the top right of your screen. It will read like this: 

• 전문 판매업자 같아요 It seems like a professional dealer.

• 비매너 사용자예요 This user has bad manners.

• 욕설을 해요 This user swears.

• 성희롱을 해요 This user is being sexually harassing me.

• 거래/환불 분쟁 신고 Trade/refund dispute report

• 사기 신고 Fraud report

• 다른 문제가 있어요 Other reason

What about Customer Service?

You can access Customer Service through your settings. The Customer Service page has an FAQ section. And at the top, you’ll notice a search bar to type in any questions you may have. 

It also has a list of categories, where you can further narrow down FAQs. Here is the list for your reference:

• 운영정책 Operational Policy    

• 계정/인증 Account/Certification

• 구매/판매 Purchase/Sales

• 거래 품목 Item Transaction

• 거래 매너 Transaction Manners

• 이벤트/초대 Event/Invitation

• 이용 제재 Sanctions for Use

• 지역 광고 Local Advertising

• 기타 Other

• 동네 업체 Neighborhood Enterprise

If this does not help, you can scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click “고객센터에 문의하기” or “Contact Customer Service”. If you click on the link, it will take you to a page where you can select a category and send a message to Customer Service (up to 500 characters). 

Post a Community Ad!

If you want to post about your business, real estate, private lessons, etc. - you can create a community ad! Click on the pencil icon at the bottom of the app and it will have an option for “Advertising”. Here are the categories: 

• 중고차/오토바이 Used Car/Motorcycle

• 동네 구인구직 Neighborhood Job

• 부동산 Real Estate

• 농수산물 Agricultural and Fishery Products

• 지역업체 소개 Introduction to Local Companies

• 과외/클래스 모집 Extracurricular/Class Recruitment

• 전시/공연/행사 Exhibition/Performance/Event

After entering pictures, a post title, category, price (optional) and contact number - you can post and advertise to your neighborhood! 

Share and Invite Your Friends!

You can share a post by clicking on the share icon on the top right corner.

Invite your friends by going to your settings and clicking “Invite Friends”! If you invite a friend and they register on the app and verify their neighborhood, both you and your friend will receive 1 “carrot”. For every 3 carrots, you will receive 1 Starbucks coffee coupon (up to 30 per person). This event ends on May 31, 2020. In order to receive the coupon, your friend must register through the URL link you send them.