[Smart Startup Era] Flower Crabs Sold on Blogs... 10 Years to 10 Billion Won in Sales

Sold 30 Boxes of Flower Crabs via Blog in 2010
Sales Increase After Joining Smart Store in 2014
Annual Sales Surpass 10 Billion Won... Up to 30 Employees

On the afternoon of August 31, the headquarters of The Kkotge in Gyeyang-gu, Incheon was bustling. Hundreds of boxes filled with seafood, including blue crabs, poured out of a 5-ton cargo truck. Five or six employees were busy transferring the contents into other boxes as soon as the boxes were unloaded. They were packaging products to be delivered to customers. The origin of this place, which sends hundreds of thousands of seafood boxes nationwide every year, was selling 30 boxes of blue crabs through a blog.

When Director Moon Eun-hee first started selling blue crabs in 2010, she was an ordinary housewife. She spent her days with her young children and began looking for a side job. Then she came up with the idea of selling blue crabs through Naver Blog. She recalled, “I like blue crabs, but I couldn’t find a place selling seasonal blue crabs online, so I thought I’d try selling them myself.”

Director Moon posted a seasonal blue crab sales post under the name 'The Kkotge' on her blog. She received orders for 30 boxes of blue crabs. Moon said, “At that time, my father ran a sawdust supply business for blue crabs, so I thought he would help me if I started something. But he didn’t help at all. Since I had already received the order, I left my child at my parents’ house and went straight to the blue crab processing site in Taean.”

She sold blue crabs through the blog for a year, consistently receiving 70 to 80 orders per week. The earnings were decent for an ordinary housewife, but something felt lacking. Then, in 2014, a turning point occurred.

Unloading operation of live blue crabs at Anheung Port, Sinjindo, Taean.

The Smart Store That Made Her Husband Quit His Job

In 2014, instead of selling through the blog, they joined Naver’s shopping mall solution Storefarm (renamed Smart Store in 2018). They attempted a full-fledged transformation into an online shopping mall. At that time, there were few places selling seasonal seafood on Storefarm. As soon as they joined, word of mouth spread, and sales doubled compared to the blog days.

As the business grew too big for Director Moon to handle alone, her husband Jeong Ji-young, who was working at the time, faced a crossroads. He had to decide whether to continue his office job or start a full-fledged business with his wife. Jeong said, “I had never thought about starting a business and was doing well at my job, so I agonized for months, losing sleep. But seeing my wife start with nothing and succeed, I made the decision and explained it.”

Thus, Jeong went from office worker to CEO of The Kkotge. Not knowing much about business, he worked even harder. To get seasonal blue crabs at a good price, he lived and slept in Sinjindo, Taean-gun, Chungnam, the production area. For five years, he traveled to Sinjindo early Monday mornings and returned home Friday nights. Even now, he personally visits various places nationwide every week to find good products.

In the first year of joining Smart Store, Director Moon and CEO Jeong alone achieved sales of 1 billion KRW. The next year, sales doubled. They hired employees. Since 2014, they have also operated a restaurant, achieving annual sales of 5 billion KRW.

Jeong Ji-young, CEO of 'Deokkotge,' poses holding the main product, live blue crabs. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Why a Seafood Company Has Six Video Production Staff

Currently, The Kkotge’s annual sales exceed 10 billion KRW. About 70-80% of total sales come through Naver. The Kkotge, which has maintained steady growth, achieved particularly steep growth in 2020. The introduction of ‘Shopping Live’ played a big role. As soon as Naver launched the live commerce feature Shopping Live in 2020, The Kkotge immediately started producing shopping videos. They have been broadcasting every Wednesday without fail for three years.

Director Moon said, “With the spread of COVID-19 making outdoor activities difficult, we thought customers would want to experience seeing and touching products in the market themselves. Text and photos had limitations, but through Shopping Live, we could show how good our seafood is.”

The Kkotge did not use Shopping Live simply as a sales tool. They also presented cooking shows (‘Cookbang’) demonstrating how to prepare delicious dishes and provided information about seasonal seafood. They put great effort into Shopping Live, holding planning meetings two weeks before each broadcast. There is a dedicated filming booth in the office. Six employees are in charge of content planning, design, and editing. This is the largest portion among the 30 employees.

CEO Jeong emphasized, “During Shopping Live, we sometimes record sales exceeding 10 million KRW in one hour. More important than sales is that live shopping gives customers trust before purchasing products.”

'Deokkotge' employees creating 'short clips' using the products. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

They also actively use ‘Short Clips,’ launched by Naver in September last year. This is a video content service shorter than the roughly one-hour Shopping Live broadcasts. Short Clips are used as trailers for Shopping Live or as summaries of the live broadcasts. The Kkotge Smart Store has about 170,000 subscribers. The number of subscribers, which was 110,000 in 2021, has sharply increased since the introduction of live shopping and Short Clips.

Starting with single-item fresh blue crabs, The Kkotge has grown into a comprehensive seafood company selling over 300 items. Their future goal is to enable customers nationwide to receive their products whenever they want.

“Thursday is the day with the most orders. Customers press the delivery order button to create special memories with their loved ones over the weekend. Sometimes, we run out of stock, and some customers don’t receive their products on time. I want every customer who orders on Thursday to have a happy weekend. That is my biggest concern these days.”