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[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] "Reeds may wither when scattered, but they survive when gathered. I hope that small business owners and neighborhood marts, which were marginalized in the online distribution war due to the dominance of large capital, can come together and exert their strength centered around this application (app)."
There is a service that quickly delivers fresh ingredients purchased from the neighborhood mart right to your doorstep. The protagonist is 'Romarket,' a delivery app exclusively for neighborhood marts launched to support small business owners. 'Jilkyungyi,' which announced the start of the Romarket new business earlier this month, is originally a small and medium-sized enterprise that develops, manufactures, and sells hygiene products, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. CEO Choi Wonseok started the business in 2009 by developing and selling a female cleansing product using natural ingredients to care for his wife's health. As the product's excellent efficacy and effects began to spread by word of mouth among customers, the company grew steadily. After being listed on the KONEX market in December 2015, its sales reached 21.53355 billion KRW by the end of 2018.
CEO Choi began paying close attention to the unusual movements in the online distribution market starting in 2015, when the hygiene product business began to stabilize. He said, "In the early days of the female cleansing product business, I thought I needed to make the brand known to consumers first, but it was like pouring water into a sieve, and I was frustrated. Then, I started online 'keyword marketing,' which was effective, and that was when I first realized that online is a distribution revolution." He added, "To expand the business, manufacturing alone has limits, and without distribution, it is like a castle in the air. I engraved this belief deeply in my heart."
CEO Choi devoted five years to on-site visits to neighborhood marts, market research, and app development to start the Romarket app business. According to him, the app system is stably structured thanks to the long preparation time.
Romarket, meaning 'a market faster than a rocket,' is a service that allows customers to quickly receive products sold at neighborhood marts with just one click. When a franchise neighborhood mart owner requests to launch the app on Romarket, Romarket remotely creates a mobile app for that mart within 20 minutes. Mart owners can maintain existing customers and attract new ones, and mart employees can easily manage inventory and other tasks through an automatically linked POS (Point of Sale) system. Consumers simply find their neighborhood mart on the app and place a delivery order.
The greatest strength of Romarket is that fresh ingredients can be delivered in a short time. Because delivery is made directly from the neighborhood mart, delivery time can be drastically reduced to within about an hour. CEO Choi explained, "For fresh ingredients, which are all about freshness, it is best to purchase small amounts frequently from the neighborhood mart. This is a great advantage for customers who prefer to cook fresh food themselves these days, when interest in hygiene is high."
CEO Choi said that mart franchise owners and customers who have used the app have given positive feedback. He said, "Romarket's biggest advantage is that you can order and receive items immediately when you suddenly need them," adding, "I felt rewarded when I heard a customer say, 'Even when I ordered late at night, it was delivered within 20 minutes, which was great.'"
Besides the delivery order function, the app includes various services to assist consumers' convenience. It has a feature to search for nearby marts, allowing users to check information about nearby marts even in unfamiliar travel destinations. CEO Choi explained that this can be useful for consumers who are experiencing 'living for a month' in a new area or those who want to feel the culture by cooking with local ingredients while traveling. Also, by using the 'Healthy Home Meal Recipes' feature, customers can receive recommendations for fresh products needed for each recipe and order them directly through the app.
CEO Choi plans to enter the global market as a long-term goal. He aspires to build a system in collaboration with accommodation-sharing businesses like Airbnb, enabling overseas travelers and business travelers to quickly find the nearest market or mart to their local accommodation and have regional ingredients delivered to their lodging.
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