"Dingdong, Dawn Delivery Has Arrived"
In the Second Year of COVID-19, 5060 Also Shop with Their Fingers
# Every day after work, Kim Cheol-gyu (age 53), who used to shop at a nearby mart, no longer does so. He became an avid fan of the dawn delivery service he first encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no need to carry heavy bags or go back to the store because he forgot to buy something essential. He even boasts about the dawn delivery service to friends who have just started online shopping. For Mr. Kim, dawn delivery has now become a part of his daily life.
◆ Fresh Food Dawn Delivery Clicked by Ages 50s and 60s
According to major fresh food dawn delivery companies on the 19th, the proportion of middle-aged and older users has surged from the 10% range last year to well over 20% this year. Market Kurly announced that as of October, customers aged 50 and above accounted for 22%. This is the result of a significant increase in new subscribers in the middle-aged group. While the total number of customers increased by 119% in one year, the number of customers aged 50 and above rose by 179%. Oasis Market also saw the proportion of customers aged 55 and above grow from 16.3% in October last year to 28.2% this year. Customers aged 55-64 increased from 12.6% last year to 19.8% this year, and those aged 65 and above rose from 3.7% to 8.4%, respectively.
The surge of middle-aged customers aged 50 and above was also prominent in sales growth rates. For dawn delivery on SSG.com, sales growth rates for customers in their 50s and 60s from January to October this year reached 56% and 61%, respectively. These figures far exceed the overall sales growth rate of 25% across all age groups during the same period. They are also significantly higher than the 16% sales growth rate for customers in their 20s to 40s.
The industry attributes this change to the "second year effect of COVID-19." As the non-face-to-face trend became full-fledged, products diversified from ingredients to meal kits and home meal replacements (HMR), and services became easier for middle-aged users to utilize, leading to a sharp increase in users. A dawn delivery industry official said, "We positively evaluate the fact that various age groups, in addition to the existing main customers in their 20s and 30s, have been drawn to online grocery shopping," adding, "We are focusing on targeting segmented customer groups by listing not only famous restaurant ready meals (RMR) and salads but also pet supplies and beauty products."
◆ Spending 3.4 Trillion Won Monthly Online
Not only in dawn delivery but also in overall online shopping, the 50s and 60s generation is emerging as major spenders. According to the online shopping trend report released by Statistics Korea, online shopping transaction volume in September reached 16.2151 trillion won, a 17.0% increase from the previous year, setting a new record. By product category, transaction volumes increased in travel and transportation (40.0%), food services (36.8%), home appliances, electronics, and telecommunications devices (25.8%), and food and groceries (9.8%).
Mobile shopping transaction volume was 11.7378 trillion won, up 23.9%. The share of mobile transactions in total online shopping transactions was 72.4%. In particular, for food services, the share of mobile transactions through delivery applications reached 97.0%. According to major online shopping companies, the 50s and 60s generation accounts for about 21% of online shopping transactions, estimated to spend 3.4 trillion won monthly.
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