[Marketing Secret] Once You Drink It, You Can't Stop... Daily Sales of 100 Million Won for the 'Irresistible Cleanse Juice'

Interview with DS Nature CEO Son Jooyoung
Operating inner beauty specialty food brand 'Dalsim'
Gaining popularity by targeting female customers' preferences

"Rather than blindly following trends, we develop and sell products that can be consumed from morning to night, 365 days a year, to help improve health."

Son Ju-young, CEO of DS Nature, has been developing and selling various products that aid in dieting through the health food brand 'Dalsim' since 2019. The main customer base is women, especially those in their late 20s to 50s who are highly interested in dieting and dietary therapy.

Son Ju-young, CEO of DS Nature.
[Photo by DS Nature]

Before founding the Dalsim brand, CEO Son had experience running a distribution agency business for a well-known domestic cosmetics brand for three years together with CEO Jo Geon-guk, who currently co-leads Dalsim. They directly operated more than 20 cosmetics stores in major commercial areas such as Gangnam, Hongdae, Myeongdong, and even internationally in Bangkok, Thailand.

His new challenge began after observing the growth of the online market. While working mainly in offline stores, he witnessed the shift of consumer focus from offline to online in the industry and decided to create his own online brand. Instead of cosmetics that decorate the outside of the skin, he chose 'inner beauty' food items to help customers cultivate a healthy interior.

The inner beauty items have gained popularity through word of mouth among customers and are also performing well in online malls. The cumulative membership of the direct-to-consumer (D2C) shopping mall operated by Dalsim has reached 230,000. CEO Son explained, "About half of all buyers are repeat customers, and the purchase conversion rate reaches 7%, which is more than five times higher than the overall e-commerce average."

The high purchase conversion rate has translated into sales performance. CEO Son said, "As of the 12th, which is an off-season, the D2C shopping mall operated on the Cafe24 platform recorded a maximum daily sales of 114 million KRW," adding, "Our goal is to surpass 25 billion KRW in annual sales."

The secret to Dalsim's popularity among customers is undoubtedly quality. They focus on producing high-quality foods that customers can consistently purchase and consume. To this end, they operate an in-house research lab and collaborate with numerous partner companies that have long experience in manufacturing health foods. Experts such as diet-specialized oriental medicine doctors and renowned domestic plastic surgery directors also participate in product development. Through this process, they have introduced products such as cleanse juices suitable for consumption on an empty stomach, enzymes for after meals, meal replacement powders, and cleanse teas without solid ingredients.

In particular, the flagship product, cleanse juice, gained popularity by using fruit directly ground from orchards rather than processed fruit ingredients. CEO Son said, "Many customers give positive feedback, recalling the juice their mothers used to grind at home when they drink our cleanse juice," adding, "As the popular product performs well, the brand's sales continue to grow steadily."

Dalsim focuses on effectively exposing the brand and products to potential customers. Since the purchase conversion rate is high, securing initial customers is crucial. Therefore, since 2020, they have been conducting various advertisements such as the main 'Shopping Items' section on portal sites in collaboration with the Cafe24 Marketing Center to increase new customer inflow. CEO Son said, "The Cafe24 Marketing Center creates materials and executes campaigns efficiently to ensure that key brand performance indicators like click-through and access rates do not decline," adding, "It was also great that they quickly shared information about the ever-changing marketing industry trends."

They also employ a strategy of carefully composing product detail pages to capture potential customers who come through advertisements. The pages are structured as if visiting an offline store and talking with a clerk, allowing customers to obtain extensive information about the products.

CEO Son said, "We operate our business centered on the D2C shopping mall with the feeling of directly delivering the products we have carefully developed to customers, and 80-90% of total sales occur through our own mall," adding, "Our goal is to continue launching many new products and establish ourselves as a food brand that anyone can eat healthily and truly feel 'I ate well.'"