[Exclusive] Junggonara Reinstates Seller Commission After 5 Years... "1% Fee to Be Imposed at End of This Month"

Recent Terms of Service Revision Brings Changes to Fee Policy
3.5% Buyer Fee and 1% Seller Fee to Be Imposed Separately
Supplementary Measures Include Reducing Settlement Period from 5 to 3 Days

Used goods trading platform Junggonara will begin charging sellers a 1% commission fee on transaction amounts. This marks the first time in five years that a sales commission is being imposed, and it is the first instance since the introduction of the platform's own Safe Payment service. Previously, only buyers were charged a commission fee, but now the fee policy is being comprehensively expanded. As competitors such as Bungaejangter have also introduced stricter commission policies, Junggonara is now actively pursuing monetization to enhance its competitiveness.

According to industry sources on September 8, Junggonara recently revised its terms of service to impose brokerage fees on all Safe Payment users. The revised terms will take effect on September 29. As a result, sellers will be required to pay a 1% commission fee on the transaction amount when using Safe Payment. However, as with the current buyer commission policy, transactions of 20,000 won or less will be exempt from the fee.

In the past, Junggonara offered an optional secure transaction service through a third-party payment provider, charging sellers a commission fee for its use. However, in August 2020, the fee burden was shifted to buyers, who have since been charged a 3.5% commission on transaction amounts. This policy continued after the launch of Junggonara Pay (now Safe Payment), the platform’s own secure payment system, in 2021. Since the full implementation of Safe Payment last month, transactions of 20,000 won or less have been exempt from the fee. With the revised terms, both buyers and sellers will be required to pay commission fees going forward.

The reinstatement of the sales commission is part of Junggonara's strategy to upgrade its own application service and reduce its long-standing reliance on the Naver Cafe platform. A Junggonara representative stated, "Expanding commission fees is inevitable as we plan to focus our investments on the app service rather than the cafe in the future." As Naver has also entered the used goods market this month by introducing a secure transaction solution to its cafe service, Junggonara has no choice but to strengthen its independent platform’s competitiveness.

To address anticipated backlash from sellers, Junggonara has also introduced supplementary measures. The settlement period for disbursing transaction proceeds will be shortened from the current five days to three days, allowing sellers to receive their payments more quickly. An integrated Safe Payment feature that enables payment of shipping fees together with the transaction amount will also be introduced within this month. A Junggonara representative said, "In exchange for the 1% commission fee, we will simultaneously enhance seller convenience and protection through system improvements," adding, "We will continue to inform and persuade sellers regarding system upgrades going forward."

The trend of increasing commission fees has been rapidly spreading across the industry recently. Bungaejangter will raise its sales commission fee from 3.5% to 6% on September 17. Naver will also increase its Safe Payment commission fee from a maximum of 1.65% to 3.5% on September 24. As competitors boost profitability and secure investment resources to strengthen their service competitiveness, Junggonara is seen as having no choice but to follow suit. Some analysts view the expansion of commission fees as a self-rescue measure to turn a profit. Bungaejangter, for example, has continued to post hundreds of billions of won in losses since its acquisition by a private equity fund. Ultimately, the pressure to increase commission fees persists, even if it means facing backlash from users.