'The Customer is Always Right'... Operating a Consumer Review Team and Reflecting Opinions in Products

Zinus Green Tea Essence Memory Foam Mattress.
Photo by Zinus

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] As consumer interest in non-face-to-face consumption increases due to the impact of COVID-19, consumption is shifting from offline to online. According to Statistics Korea, the transaction amount of domestic online shopping malls in the first quarter of this year was approximately 36.84 trillion KRW. The total transaction amount slightly decreased compared to the record high of 37.41 trillion KRW in the fourth quarter of last year. However, mobile shopping transactions in the first quarter reached about 25 trillion KRW, marking an all-time high.

It has now become common to purchase products easily online or via mobile without visiting stores in person. There are also negative aspects associated with this. Recently, several online shopping malls were caught manipulating reviews by pushing dissatisfied product reviews to the bottom of the board while displaying positive reviews at the top to deceive consumers. Since customers cannot see products directly in online shopping malls, reviews are a crucial factor in opening consumers' wallets, and this was exploited. However, companies expanding their business and developing products online strive to listen to customers' voices through reviews.

◆ Zinus, the Amazon bestseller mattress proven by 660,000 reviews

Zinus, which has secured its position in the Korean market by becoming an Amazon bestseller, is one such company. Zinus, a domestic mattress manufacturing and distribution company, focused on online reviews to hear customers' voices that cannot be heard offline. As customer reviews increased, Zinus established and operates a dedicated review team internally.

They mainly analyze low-rated reviews to identify drawbacks pointed out by consumers or areas for improvement and find improvements and new ideas from them. Believing that reviews are a critical factor for corporate success, they provide detailed analysis of customer review status in quarterly reports for shareholders.

As a result, Zinus has accumulated 660,000 reviews domestically and internationally so far, and based on excellent product quality relative to price, it is solidifying its foundation compared to other brands in the same category.

Monthly Average Number of Reviews and Cumulative Review Graph for 'Zinus'. [Image=Zinus]

◆ Brown Bag Coffee analyzes customers' coffee consumption styles

They also listen carefully to customers' stories and provide specialized products and services. Brown Bag Coffee is a brand that manufactures and sells coffee beans online, considering customers' preferences and budgets. Currently, there are about 38,000 customer reviews on their website, which are analyzed and reflected in creating new coffee blends.

Brown Bag Coffee offers the most diverse range of proprietary blend coffees in Korea based on over 100,000 roasting sessions and more than 300,000 order data, utilizing smart roasting and focus blending technologies. Recently, they launched a membership service called ‘Brown Bag Coffee Club’ that considers individual coffee consumption styles. It features benefits and services requested by customers, provided according to the amount and frequency of coffee consumption.

◆ Zigzag makes both writing and checking reviews convenient

To increase real user reviews, the women's shopping mall aggregation service 'Zigzag' created a convenient review writing environment. They introduced an integrated review function linked with Z Payment, a unified payment service, within the Zigzag application. Through Z Payment, users can add products from multiple shopping malls to their cart, pay at once, and write reviews for each product while earning integrated points.

This reduces the hassle of logging into each shopping mall where the purchase was made to register reviews. Additionally, writing reviews earns integrated points that can be used like cash at all shopping malls supporting Z Payment.