9 out of 10 People Say "They Will Continue Using Local Love Gift Certificates"... Need to Supplement Lack of Merchant Information

Korea Consumer Agency, Survey of 1,500 People

Intention to increase or decrease the use amount of local love gift certificates in the future.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Most consumers who have used local love gift certificates expressed their intention to continue using them, but pointed out the need for improvements such as strengthening the provision of merchant information.

On the 18th, the Korea Consumer Agency conducted a survey of 1,500 consumers nationwide who had experience using local love gift certificates from October 20 to 29 last year. As a result, 88.2% of users stated that they intend to continue using the gift certificates in the future.

Regarding the future proportion of spending using local love gift certificates, 56.7% of respondents said they would "maintain it at a level similar to the current one," and 31.5% said they would "increase it slightly or significantly compared to now." The rest said they would reduce usage or have no plans to use them further.

The average monthly usage amount of local love gift certificates was highest at 36.3% for the range of 100,000 KRW to less than 300,000 KRW, followed by 24.9% for the range of 50,000 KRW to less than 100,000 KRW. Among 288 consumers who first received local love gift certificates as a means of disaster relief fund payment, 42% said they would only recharge and use them when there are many benefits such as discounts or cashback.

The Consumer Agency pointed out, "Providing economic incentives is important to activate new users," and added, "It is necessary to prepare a plan to secure stable funding for this purpose."

When evaluating inconveniences in using local love gift certificates on a 5-point scale, the highest score was 3.49 for difficulty in finding merchant information offline. Difficulty in finding merchant information online or the small number of merchants were also cited as inconveniences. For the development of the local love gift certificate system, measures such as establishing online payment methods and strengthening consumer protection were highlighted as tasks for the government and local governments to pursue.

Based on this survey, the Consumer Agency plans to request related local governments to strengthen the provision of merchant information for local love gift certificates.