Last Weekend, Discount Bundles Released... Retail Industry's Final Shopping Battle

Big Discounts Including Half-Price and Free Gifts
Coupang and Lotte ON Winter Season Off... Up to 80% Off
Major Marts Also Hold Half-Price Events... Expecting Consumer Sentiment Recovery

Retailers are launching final discount events ahead of the last weekend of the year. To significantly reduce the burden of grocery prices for consumers, large supermarkets are offering half-price discounts, while the e-commerce industry is discounting season-off products by up to 80%.

According to the distribution industry on the 28th, e-commerce company Coupang will hold a winter season-off event until the 31st. They announced discounts of up to 80%, with major brands including Adidas, Judy Judy, Atelier Nine, Loralora, and Slim9. The representative product is the Adidas ‘Down Vest,’ sold for 80,000 won.

Lotte On will also offer discounts of up to 72% for three days from the 29th to the 31st, focusing on winter season products. The event covers winter padding, coats, boots, cold-weather clothing, skincare products, and health functional foods.

SSG.com of the Shinsegae Group and Gmarket will hold the DAY1 event from the 30th to the 5th of next month. Gmarket will provide a 12% discount coupon daily to members, while SSG.com plans to issue a 12% discount coupon daily applicable to Shinsegae Department Store products within its mall.

Earlier, the Shinsegae Group announced that from the 30th to January 5th next year, it will hold the ‘2024 DAY1’ event involving the entire company. Seven affiliates, including offline retailers such as Emart, Emart Everyday, Emart24, Shinsegae L&B, and online platforms like Gmarket, SSG.com, and W Concept, will participate. This DAY1 event, held over the year-end and New Year period, carries the title ‘Life-closely Sale,’ aiming to reduce consumers’ shopping burdens amid difficult economic conditions.

Emart, a major offline affiliate, will hold half-price sales and free gift events from the 30th to January 1st. For Korean beef, a 40% discount is planned when paying with event cards from the 29th to January 4th. Recently expensive strawberries (one pack, 500g) will be discounted by 3,000 won when Shinsegae points are accumulated. Among processed foods, frozen pork cutlets, pizza, hot dogs, dumplings, and cheese can be purchased at 50% off when buying two or more.

Homeplus will also hold a ‘Half Price Plus One Day’ event on the same days as Emart. For livestock products, membership members will receive half-price offers on ‘Nonghyup Safe Korean Beef’ and ‘Australian Clean Beef Flower Ribeye.’ On the 30th and 31st, half-price sales will be held on domestic pork belly, neck meat, front leg, hind leg, and ribs graded first class or higher. King crab, lobster, snow crab, and octopus can also be purchased at half price during the event period. Processed foods such as tteokbokki, rabokki, udon, and beef bone soup will have buy-one-get-one-free promotions.

Lotte Mart and its supermarkets will hold a ‘Value Event’ until January 3rd, offering food ingredients at half price. This includes Korean beef shank or neck meat for tteokguk (rice cake soup) and ‘Australian bone-in ribs’ perfect for kimchi stew. Among fruits, a 2,000 won discount is offered when purchasing two or more packs of strawberries.

The reason retailers are focusing on year-end discount events is due to sluggish sales caused by reduced consumer spending, hoping to clear inventory and boost final sales by the end of the year. In fact, last month, retail sales increased across all sectors as promotional events intensified, including in-house discount events, Black Friday, and Korea Sale Festa. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, major retailers’ sales growth rate in November rose 8.7% compared to the same month last year, higher than the previous month’s growth rate of 6.4%. Offline sales increased by 4.5%, and online sales rose by 12.7%.

An industry insider said, “The intention is to capture last-minute consumer sentiment by holding discount events during the long holiday period,” adding, “Since January next year will see department stores and others conducting their own season-off or popular product discount events, it seems they are quickly starting marketing efforts.”