'Win-win for Mart and Customers'... Emart Launches 2nd Phase of ‘e-ward’ Cashback Promotion

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Emart announced on the 5th that it will launch the 2nd phase of the 'e-ward' promotion.

'e-ward' is a cashback promotion first introduced by Emart in the retail industry last October. As consumers were able to purchase popular home appliances at affordable prices through this, it had a significant effect on offline store traffic and an increase in the average spending per premium customer.

Accordingly, from the 6th, Emart has prepared an opportunity for the first 1,700 customers nationwide at 127 Emart stores and 9 Electromart stores located outside Emart to purchase four of Samsung Electronics' latest popular home appliances?air purifiers, induction cooktops, QLED TVs, and UHD TVs?at discounted prices until the products are sold out.

For the Emart 'e-ward' promotion, customers must visit the store, fill out a participation application, and purchase the eligible home appliances through a Hyundai Card registered on 'SSG PAY' with a 25-month interest-free installment plan.

Afterwards, if the customer achieves a certain shopping amount (300,000 to 450,000 KRW per month depending on the product) with the card, the monthly installment payment for the corresponding home appliance will be fully refunded as cashback the following month. By meeting the monthly shopping commitment amount set for each product, customers can effectively purchase the home appliances for free without any installment payments.

Notably, unlike the first promotion, the second phase strengthens benefits by unconditionally refunding the first month's installment regardless of the shopping commitment achievement during the 25-month installment period. The 'e-ward' promotion is limited to one commitment per person, and cashback for monthly installment payments is deposited in cash into a pre-designated account around the 25th of the following month upon achieving the shopping amount.

However, since this is an offline store promotion by Emart, purchase amounts from non-Emart stores such as Emart Mall and Traders, as well as online shopping, are not included in the achievement results.

Meanwhile, analysis of customer data from the first 'e-ward' showed that about 40% of all customers who participated from last October to this January were new or regular customers, not existing premium customers.

It was also analyzed that linked sales through 'e-ward' are being activated. The average monthly spending per customer participating in 'e-ward' over the past four months was about 500,000 to 600,000 KRW. This amount is roughly twice the average monthly spending of existing Emart premium customers. This suggests that customers who previously shopped less frequently expanded the customer base by participating in this promotion.

Emart viewed this as significant because customers actively participate and receive tangible benefits. The average cashback achievement rate among participating customers was about 80%, meaning that more than eight out of ten customers receive their monthly installment payments back in cash each month.

Choi Hoonhak, Executive Director of Marketing at Emart, stated, "Since the cashback benefits returned to customers and the 'lock-in' effect of retaining premium customers have actually appeared, we plan to increase the frequency of the 'e-ward' program to about 4 to 6 times a year so that customers can experience a wider variety of products."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.