The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies (한국전자거래학회지)

Society for e-Business Studies (한국전자거래학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Expansion of the Scope of Electronic Commerce by Standardization: An Analysis a Secondhand Clothing Market

표준화를 통한 전자상거래의 영역 확장: 중고의류 시장 사례 분석

  • Kim, Iljoo (College of ICT Convergence, Myongji University)
  • Received : 2021.10.25
  • Accepted : 2021.12.30
  • Published : 2022.02.28
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Since the first sale of a banner advertisement in 1995, electronic commerce has become a new transaction channel for consumers. With more than 20 years of its history, electronic commerce has become an important consumption channel for everyone and inexperience is no more a reason that discourages the consumption through this channel. The great expansion of this channel is now a formidable thereat to traditional channels. However, products with high asset specificity and complexity are still having difficulty to be traded over the online channel where the experience of the products for a consumer is limited. Especially, variations of the same product's quality depending on how pre-owners used the product and high complexity to describe the quality of the products prevent used goods from being traded over e-channels. Added to that, the information asymmetry between sellers and buyers for used goods makes the establishment of market transaction difficult. Considering the challenges, the current case study discusses thredUP, a clothing resale platform company. In this paper, we study how the company could overcome those limitations in this toughest resale market through the use of AI for dynamic pricing and standarized product quality ratings. In addition, we also hope to provide readers with the opportunity to understand the secondhand industries and its market, and see where it is heading for in the future.

1995년 역사적 첫 배너광고 판매 거래 이후 전자상거래는 명실공히 새로운 유통채널로 자리매김 하였다. 20년 이상의 역사 속에 소비자의 자연스러운 소비 습관이 되어 경험 부족은 더 이상 전자상거래의 발전을 늦추는 이유가 될 수 없게 되었고, 그 규모를 계속 확장하며 이제 기존 유통채널을 위협하는 존재로 성장하였다. 하지만 이러한 전자상거래 시장의 지속적인 성장에도 불구하고, 자산 특유성이 높거나 설명 복잡성이 높은 상품의 경우, 소비자가 상품의 품질을 검증하는 것이 제한적일 수밖에 없는 전자상거래의 한계로 인해, 온라인 시장으로의 진출 및 확장은 힘들 것으로 여겨져 왔다. 특히, 이러한 조건 하에서 기존 사용자에 따라 품질의 차이가 많이 나고 설명 난이도가 높은 중고품의 온라인 거래 활성화는 거의 불가능한 것으로 여겨져 왔다. 중고품의 경우 상품에 대한 많은 정보를 가진 판매자 대비 정보를 많이 가지지 못한 구매희망자 간 정보 비대칭성으로 더욱더 시장의 성립이 힘들 수 있다는 것이 또한 온라인 중고거래에 대해 부정적인 시선을 갖게 하는 이유이다. 하지만, 본 논문에서 이와 같은 한계를 인공지능(AI)에 기반한 동적 가격 분석과 예측을 통해 문제 가능성을 최대한 낮춤으로써 극복하고, 품질 평가 표준화를 통하여 전자상거래 최고 거래 난이도의 중고 의류소매업에 전례 없이 성공한 thredUP의 사례분석을 통해 전자상거래, 특히 온라인 중고거래의 향후 발전 방향과 가능성을 제시하고자 한다.

Keywords

References

  1. Akerlof, G., "The market for 'lemons': qualitative uncertainty and the market mechanism," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 84, pp. 488-500, 1970. https://doi.org/10.2307/1879431
  2. Bae, J. W., "thredUp, the one billion two hundred fifty million dollar value treasure box has come, thredUp, 2021 Resale Report," The JoongAng Economy, 2021.04.22; Available from: https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/24040906.
  3. Coase, R., "The nature of the firm," Economica, Vol. 4, pp. 386-405, 1937. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x
  4. Debter, L., "thredUp chases sizzling demand for used clothing in $1.3 billion IPO," Forbes, Mar 2021; Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2021/03/26/thredup-chases-sizzling-demand-for-used-clothing-in-13-billion-ipo/?sh=2c93215455f6.
  5. Glaeser, E. L. and Kallal, H. D., "Thin markets, asymmetric information, and mortgage- backed securities," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp 64-86, Jan 1997. https://doi.org/10.1006/jfin.1997.0209
  6. Gu, S., Kelly, B., and Xiu, D., "Autoencoder asset pricing models," Journal of Econometrics Vol. 222, No. 1, Part B, pp. 429-450, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2020.07.009
  7. Ha, J., Park, K., and Kim, M., "A Development of Road Crack Detection System Using Deep Learning-based Segmentation and Object Detection," The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 93-106, 2001.
  8. Jeong, J. Y., "China, regulatory reinforcement of e-commerce," YonhapNews, 2021.03.16; Available from: https://www.kvina.co.kr/newsCenterview.asp?/articleId=AKR20210316073600009&page=1&pgCode=0300&serDate=&sercateidx=&seriskvina=0&searchstr=.
  9. Kwon, M. S., "Samsung SDS, participation of global e-commerce standardization, daily economy," 2001.05.10; Available from: https://mk.co.kr/news/it/view/2001/05/114849/.
  10. Kym, H., Hong, J. Y., and Jeong, S., "The evolution of market mechanism in B2B electronic commerce: An exploratory study," The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 41-61, 2001.
  11. Lee, H., "Do electronic marketplaces lower prices of goods," Communications of ACM, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 73-80, 1998. https://doi.org/10.1145/291469.291471
  12. Lee, K. R. and Lee, K. H., "E-Commerce standardization of product image on overseas shopping malls," Trade Economy Newspaper, May 7, 2019; Available from: http://www.tradetimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=692.
  13. Malone, T. W., Yates, J., and Benjamin, R. I., "Electronic markets and electronic hierarchies," Communications of ACM, Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 484-497, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1145/214762.214766
  14. Na, G. W., "AI changes prices in real time", Maekyung Economy, 2021; Available from: https://www.mk.co.kr/economy/view/2021/751863/.
  15. Park, S. W. and Park, S. H., "The role change and the future direction of intermediaries by the advancement of ecommerce," Journal of Information and Operations Management, Vol. 16, No.2, pp. 11-28, 2006.
  16. Park, Y. J., Yim, C. S., and Yoon, Y. K., "The study of present state and of policy analysis of e-commerce standardization," Journal of Information Technology Applications & Management, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 23-43, 2003.
  17. Sergan, E., "How a used-clothing site became a $184 million tech giant thredUp's IPO is the latest sign of a booming resale industry", Fastcompany," 2019.03.29; Available fro m: https://www.fastcompany.com/90619485/how-a-used-clothing-site-became-a-184-million-tech-giant.
  18. Statistica, "E-commerce as share of total U.S. retail sales from 1st quarter 2010 to 2nd quarter 2021," 2021; Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/187439/share-of-e-commerce-sales-in-total-us-retail-sales-in-2010/.
  19. thredUP, "Changing listing prices," Available from: https://help.thredup.com/en_us/how-do-i-change-the-price-of-an-accepted-item-ByI9eUEp4.
  20. thredUp, "thredUp resale report", 2021, Available from: https://www.thredup.com/resale/#whos-thrifting-and-why.
  21. Williams, C., "Old clothes, new strategies: thredUps' evolution," Oct 16, 2019; Available from: https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/old-clothes-new-strategies-thredups-evolution/.
  22. Williamson, O. E., "Markets and hierarchies," Free Press, New York, 1975.
  23. Wuthrich, M. V. and Buser, B., "Data analytics for non-life insurance pricing," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 16-68, September 10, 2020.
  24. Young, J., "A decade in review: Ecommerce sales vs. total retail sales 2011-2020," Digital Commerce 360, Feb. 19. 2021; Available from: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/e-commerce-sales-retail-sales-ten-year-review/.