Posted by Like many Indonesians, Acha (@tichagallery) was affected by the pandemic when her company had to reduce working hours due to cost-cutting measures. At that time, Acha was staying in a kos (rented room in Indonesian), and had other fixed monthly expenses she had to account for despite the reduced salary. She thought of getting more income, and one way was to sell unused items.
“My friend offered to help me sell one of my items on another platform, but there was no buyer for two weeks. She suggested I try to list on Carousell to see if there would be buyers on a different platform. So I created my own account to sell, and my vacuum cleaner was sold in one day,” said Acha. She has sold her television and sports clothes, among many items since.
Despite being a first-time seller, sales has been good. She shared, “it is very interesting that many people still have a lot of interest in buying, especially when I was listing some office equipment that we wanted to clear. I had buyers requesting for me to let them know if I was going to list certain items or checking if I was going to sell certain items that I hadn’t listed.” One of the fastest-selling items was her nephew’s plastic toy balls which sold in less than a day. She found 100 balls when she went home to stay, and cleaned them before listing.
Acha uses her previous working experience in a retail company to come up with a promotional strategy for her Carousell account. She created a 50% off promotion in July off clothes and used her skills in photo editing to design her promotional materials.
Promotional image that Acha designed for her account
She shared her experience with her friends, and they have started selling items too. “I have one friend who told me that she was encouraged and motivated by my story to set up her own Carousell account. My new hobby is now spring cleaning my house and selling items we no longer need on Carousell,” she adds with a smile.