108.5% Growth Year-on-Year to 1.136 Trillion KRW
Special Discounts on Food and Daily Necessities Effective
E-commerce Affiliate SSG.com Also Performs Well
Emart recorded sales of 1 trillion KRW during the week-long 'Landers Day,' known as Shinsegae Group's largest shopping festival in the first half of the year. This is seen as a stepping stone for Emart, which posted its first-ever loss since its founding last year, to rebound its performance.
Emart announced on the 9th that sales from the 'Landers Day' event held from the 1st to the 7th increased by 108.5% year-on-year, totaling 1.136 trillion KRW. In the early stages of the event, mainly conducted by online affiliates such as SSG.com, sales were driven by offline stores like discount marts and Traders during the weekend.
Models are promoting the 'Landers Day' discount event at Emart Yongsan branch in Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]
At offline stores, special discounts on daily necessities such as food from the 5th to the 7th played a significant role, recording sales 13% higher than the previous year. In particular, Korean beef, fruits, and alcoholic beverages sold rapidly, showing growth rates of 15.7%, 25.1%, and 20.6%, respectively.
Previously, Emart posted an operating loss of 46.9 billion KRW on a consolidated basis last year, turning from an operating profit of 135.7 billion KRW the previous year. This was the first-ever loss in its history, with a net loss reaching 187.5 billion KRW. Emart’s standalone performance also saw sales decrease by only 2.1% to 16.55 trillion KRW, and operating profit dropped by 27.3% to 188 billion KRW. As profitability worsened, Emart internally heightened its sense of crisis, conducting company-wide voluntary retirement for the first time since its founding last month.
For this reason, Emart revealed at last month’s shareholders’ meeting a strategy to overcome the crisis by strengthening its core offline capabilities. To this end, Emart disclosed a blueprint to secure cost competitiveness through product sourcing collaboration among the three offline entities: Emart, supermarket Emart Everyday, and convenience store Emart24.
Therefore, the fact that offline stores recorded more than double the sales compared to last year during 'Landers Day,' considered the group’s largest event in the first half of the year, is regarded as laying the foundation for a performance rebound.
In particular, SSG.com breathed a sigh of relief by recording sales 12% higher than the previous year during this year’s Landers Day. SSG.com was identified as one of the causes of the parent company Emart’s first-ever annual operating loss. Last year, it posted an operating loss of 103 billion KRW and a net loss of 104.1 billion KRW on a consolidated basis. Only two Emart affiliates recorded net losses exceeding 100 billion KRW: Shinsegae Construction (158.5 billion KRW) and SSG.com. For this reason, following the dismissal of the CEO and executives at Shinsegae Construction, SSG.com was also mentioned as a target for personnel reshuffling.
SSG.com’s categories of daily necessities and processed foods, conducted in conjunction with discount marts, grew by 46% and 26%, respectively. An SSG.com official stated, "We will continue to offer differentiated products and benefits online through various events linked with group companies."
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