Sangdon Kim, CEO of Freshmento
Operates Naver's 'Neighborhood Market Shopping'
Services in 10 Seoul Locations Including Amsa General Market
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] "Our primary goal is to enable any customer in Seoul to use the neighborhood market shopping service."
Kim Sangdon, CEO of Freshmento (35), expressed his ambition to transform the traditional market ecosystem through shopping integrated with information technology (IT) services. Meeting at the office in Seokchon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Kim said, "Securing many market stores is the most important task," adding, "We plan to increase the number of traditional markets participating in the neighborhood market shopping service to 20 by the first half of this year."
Freshmento is an agricultural, fishery, and livestock product distribution company founded in 2013. Since 2018, it has also been the operator of Naver's 'Neighborhood Market Shopping' service. Naver built the online platform, and Freshmento provides the service as the operator. After a pilot operation in December 2018, the full service began in June last year.
Kim said, "So far, the number of neighborhood market shopping products has increased to about 1,000, and the number of service partner companies has grown to around 150," adding, "More than 10,000 customers have used the neighborhood market shopping service." He emphasized, "Last year, the average monthly order volume was about 700, but we have set a goal of over 3,000 orders per month in the second half of this year."
Currently, the service is available in 10 markets, including Amsa General Market and Bongcheon Jeil Market in Seoul. While expanding sales mainly in traditional markets in the Seoul area, there are plans to extend the service to local regions in the future. The advantage of this service is that customers can easily purchase fresh products from traditional markets using smartphones and other devices. The platform contains detailed information such as photos, prices, quantities, and store names of various products sold in the markets.
Kim explained, "Once the customer completes the online payment process, the purchase information is provided to the respective store merchants," adding, "Merchants place the purchased products in a shared logistics warehouse within the market, and our company’s partnered delivery agencies collect and deliver the products to consumers."
Kim majored in business administration at university and worked as a fresh food buyer at a large supermarket before starting his own business. Beginning as an online direct-from-producer shopping mall where producers could sell at fair prices and consumers could buy cheaply, the company now also operates the neighborhood market shopping service. Initially, changing the market merchants' perception of online services was not easy.
Kim said, "At first, when we tried to get store merchants in the market to apply for entry, we were often turned away. However, as the number of markets and stores using our service increased and merchant satisfaction grew, now local governments and market merchants from other regions contact us directly after hearing about us."
Kim plans to hire about five additional employees this year, focusing on IT and sales personnel. He said, "Until now, we have been distributing using IT, but now we plan to distribute through direct IT development," adding, "We are also considering a second startup for new business ventures."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
