Rapidly Growing E-commerce... Focusing on Securing Loyal Customers

Market Kurly, Repurchase Rate Increasing Every Year
SSG.com Expands Freshness Guarantee System Nationwide

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Amid the rapid growth of the domestic e-commerce market following the COVID-19 pandemic, attention is focusing on repurchase rates. The repurchase rate refers to the percentage of customers who return to the same shopping mall to make another purchase after buying a product, and it is considered a measure to gauge a company's stability in proportion to customer loyalty.

According to Market Kurly on the 28th, as of April this year, the repurchase rate of new customers recorded 76.5%. It has been on an upward trend every year, with 61.2% in 2019, 65.2% in 2020, and 71.3% in 2021. The number of ‘Kurly Lovers’ customers who purchase more than 150,000 KRW per month on Market Kurly has increased 2.8 times annually since 2016. The highest tier, ‘The Purple,’ has grown fourfold annually on average, and the next tier, ‘Purple,’ has also increased by an average of 3.2 times each year. The high growth rate of customers with large monthly purchase amounts is due to a significant increase in customers using Market Kurly as their main channel for daily grocery shopping. Market Kurly assigns five levels of Kurly Lovers based on customers’ purchase performance in the previous month and provides tangible benefits such as point accumulation rates, coupons, and gifts. Customers who purchase more than 1.5 million KRW in the previous month are assigned ‘The Purple’ tier, and those who purchase more than 1 million KRW receive the ‘Purple’ tier. ‘Lavender’ is given to customers purchasing over 500,000 KRW, ‘White’ to those over 300,000 KRW, and ‘Friends’ to those over 150,000 KRW.

At SSG.com, an analysis of fresh food purchase data from July last year to June this year showed that the repurchase rate of customers who bought products with freshness guarantees reached 80%. Considering the recent effectiveness of the freshness guarantee system in increasing repurchase rates, SSG.com has expanded the service nationwide. Since its corporate launch in March 2019, SSG.com has operated a freshness guarantee system that allows customers to exchange or refund products purchased online if they feel the products are not fresh, without any conditions. Until now, this system was only operated in the Neo region, an online-exclusive logistics center in the metropolitan area, but it will now be expanded to over 120 Emart PP centers (Picking & Packing Centers) nationwide. Any customer who purchases a product with a freshness guarantee banner via SSG Delivery or Dawn Delivery can exchange or refund the product if they are not satisfied with its freshness.

At Oasis Market, the repurchase rate has expanded from 80% in 2018 to 90%, and the number of online mall members has surpassed one million. This achievement was made within four years of Oasis Market starting its online business. The consumer policy of ‘providing high-quality products at the most reasonable prices’ has received great response, steadily increasing the number of customers even without large-scale marketing. An Oasis Market official said, "Thanks to our loyal customers, Oasis Market exists as it does today," and added, "We will continue to firmly uphold the spirit of providing good products at reasonable prices."