[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] It has been revealed that consumers' non-face-to-face spending during the 'Korea Together Sale' period reached 25.94 billion KRW.
On the 15th, six government ministries, including the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, announced the results of the Korea Together Sale at the Seoul Government Complex.
The Together Sale was a large-scale consumption promotion event involving major retailers, small business owners, and traditional markets, held from last month 26th to this month 12th to overcome the damage caused by COVID-19 and revitalize domestic demand.
According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, during this period, a total of 10,597 products were sold through non-face-to-face distribution channels such as online special exhibitions, TV home shopping, and live commerce, generating total sales of 25.94 billion KRW.
Among these, in the case of online special exhibitions, 10,296 products were sold through ▲private shopping malls such as Wemakeprice, TMON, and Gmarket (16 sites) ▲the Gachisapida platform ▲Youth Merchant special exhibition (11th Street) ▲online traditional market section, resulting in total sales of 8.1 billion KRW.
Seven TV home shopping companies (Lotte, Gongyoung, CJ, Hyundai, GS, NS, Home&Shopping) sold 98 products, achieving total sales of 16.74 billion KRW. In particular, among the 39 products sold on Gongyoung Home Shopping, 30 products were completely sold out.
Live commerce, which introduces and sells products to viewers through real-time video streaming, was conducted seven times during the event period. Among a total of 203 products, 39 products were sold out. Minister Park Young-sun of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, “The Together Sale was an opportunity to experiment with a new promotional paradigm called live commerce amid the rapidly changing consumer economy landscape due to COVID-19.”
Offline distribution channels such as traditional markets also showed increased sales compared to before the Together Sale. Sales at traditional markets increased by an average of 10.7% per day compared to the period before the Together Sale (from the 19th to 25th of last month), and the number of visiting customers increased by 12.1%. Both sales and customer numbers at traditional markets showed steady growth after the Together Sale, especially increasing by more than 15% during the last weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).
As part of the Together Sale, over 4,000 nationwide 'Good Supermarkets' also showed meaningful results. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) collaborated to directly purchase 287 tons of items such as onions and potatoes, which had difficulty securing sales channels due to COVID-19, and supported their sale at Good Supermarkets at affordable prices. The sales of stores participating in the Together Sale increased by an average of 7.0% compared to the same period last year.
Zero Pay payment amounts increased by an average of 242 million KRW per day (7.28%) compared to before the Together Sale. Minister Park explained that this proves the effect of the payback event, which refunds 5% of the payment amount when paying 5,000 KRW or more with Zero Pay.
During the same period, sales of the three major department stores increased by 4.0%. Although the three major large marts had continued a sales decline trend since February this year, during the Together Sale period, the decrease was limited to 1.4%, significantly slowing the decline.
The total domestic approval amount of credit and debit cards, an indicator that can gauge the overall consumption flow during the Together Sale period, was 38.2524 trillion KRW, an increase of 4.56% compared to the same period last year.
Minister Park said, “The Together Sale, following the emergency disaster relief funds distributed since May this year, established a new realm of ‘K-Sale’ that fused K-pop and K-brands under thorough quarantine measures to revitalize domestic demand. The Together Sale, which involved all economic actors from traditional markets and small business owners to large corporations, provided consumers with opportunities for rational consumption as well as healing and comfort to the public to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.”
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