BI 'Emart Traders' Renamed 'Traders Wholesale Club' with Paid Membership, Exclusive Discounts, Up to 2% Rewards, 'Big Wave Items'
"Product Competitiveness ↑ - Membership ↑ - Reinvestment in Quality & Price - Enhanced Benefits Cycle"
[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Emart's warehouse-style discount store 'Emart Traders' is changing its brand identity (BI) from 'Emart Traders' to 'Traders Wholesale Club' and introducing a paid membership. It will expand exclusive products and strengthen product competitiveness.
On the 4th, Traders announced the main innovation directions of 'Next Traders,' centered on these contents.
Traders will change its signboard from Emart Traders to Traders Wholesale Club. By applying 'Wholesale,' which means 'wholesale, bulk, large-scale,' to the brand name, it intends to establish the original identity of a warehouse-style discount store distinct from the large supermarket Emart. The new BI will be applied to the online mall and mobile application (app) this month and will be sequentially applied to offline stores.
They will introduce a customer loyalty program (paid membership) to strengthen the acquisition of membership customers. While continuing the 'open store' policy where general customers can shop as usual, they plan to provide additional 'premium services' to membership customers. Traders will also launch the signature product 'Big Wave Item.' They plan to continuously develop differentiated products boasting price and quality competitiveness by category so that customers keep visiting the store.
No Jae-ak, head of the Traders division, said, "We have carried out comprehensive innovation to secure a definite growth engine that can survive to the end even in unpredictable situations such as rapidly changing distribution environments, economic recession, and high inflation," adding, "We will create a warehouse-style discount store from the customer's perspective in a way unique to Traders."
From today, Traders will introduce the paid membership 'Traders Club' and its own reward points 'TR CASH.' Traders Club is broadly divided into Standard and Premium grades, and for business customers, Standard Biz and Premium Biz grades are also operated. Standard members can join with an annual fee of 30,000 KRW (25,000 KRW for Biz members), and Premium members with an annual fee of 70,000 KRW. 'TR CASH,' which can be used like cash according to purchase amounts, is accumulated at 1% for Standard members and 2% for Premium members (accumulation limits of 500,000 KRW and 1,000,000 KRW respectively).
TR CASH is a 'points that accumulate the more you use' reward that increases as the shopping amount grows and can be used like cash. It can be used at Traders stores after joining the Traders Club annual membership, and existing Shinsegae points accumulation benefits are maintained. Membership customers can purchase popular Traders products at member prices every month. A Traders official said, "We have also prepared a 'membership guarantee system' that refunds 100% of the annual fee if customers are not satisfied with the membership benefits," adding, "We are preparing specific details for 'Shinsegae Universe' benefits linked to Shinsegae Group's offline core channels for Premium members."
The official launch of Traders Club is on January 1 next year, and from October 4 to December 31 this year, an 'early bird sign-up promotion' will be held. During the early bird sign-up period, a special promotion will be held allowing existing excellent Traders customers to join the Standard grade at a special price, and all other new members will receive a welcome voucher (discount coupon) worth 24,500 KRW.
For early bird sign-up customers, special member-only product discounts will be offered until December 31, and other membership benefits such as TR CASH accumulation will be applied from January 1 next year.
Starting with the first store opened in 2010, Traders has continued to open new stores every year, increasing the number of stores threefold from 7 stores in 2012 over 10 years. It recorded double-digit sales growth for two consecutive years in 2020 and 2021, entering the 3 trillion KRW annual sales era. A Traders official said, "The goal is to increase membership customers through strengthening product competitiveness, reinvest the resources generated back into products, and ultimately create a flywheel structure where everything returns as customer benefits." He added, "In the mid to long term, we will continue to open up to 30 stores to expand customer touchpoints so that more customers can experience the benefits of Traders."
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