Large Supermarkets Introduce Lowest Price Guarantee... "The 10-Won War Has Begun"

Earn Reward Points Equivalent to the Price Difference When Purchasing at a Higher Price

Customers are purchasing products at Homeplus Gangseo branch in Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Amid the ongoing high inflation, large discount stores have launched lowest price guarantee programs to attract consumers. This marks a revival of intense price competition down to the 10-won unit level as seen in the past.

According to the industry on the 24th, Homeplus introduced a ‘Lowest Price Guarantee’ program that compares and searches product prices among the three major discount stores. If customers purchase items at a higher price than elsewhere, they receive a credit equivalent to the price difference. Among My Homeplus membership holders who have downloaded the My Homeplus application (app), if they buy any of 1,000 representative products such as milk, snacks, beverages, refrigerated and frozen foods at a higher price than at Emart Mall or Lotte Mart Mall, the difference is credited as Home Money. The daily maximum credit limit is 5,000 points, which can be used offline at Homeplus stores within 30 days after crediting.

At Homeplus, the ‘AI Lowest Price’ program, launched last month, has received positive responses from customers, resulting in a significant increase in offline channel sales. The AI Lowest Price is a big data algorithm-based pricing system that lowers the prices of 50 selected core products weekly to the industry’s lowest price level. From the first day of implementation on the 25th of last month until the 18th of this month, sales at the top 10 stores increased by about 22% year-on-year, and the number of customers rose by about 18%.

Earlier, Emart introduced a lowest price guarantee program in April last year that compared prices of Coupang’s Rocket Delivery products and store delivery products from Lotte Mart Mall and Homeplus Mall, crediting the price difference as ‘e-money’ usable at Emart offline stores. At that time, Lotte Mart also implemented a policy to sell those products at prices offered by Emart Mall but has since discontinued it.

A representative from a major discount store said, "We will fulfill our role as the frontline in price defense and establish ourselves as a trusted distribution channel for customers," adding, "We will continue to reduce customer burdens and expand benefits."