Consumer Agency: "Quality Comparison Information Has Significant Influence on Actual Consumer Choices and Improves Recognition of Excellent SMEs' Products"

Usefulness and Influence of Information by Item.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 7th that a survey on the effectiveness of quality comparison information for 18 items, including clothes dryers and air purifiers, published through the 2019 'Happiness Dream Comparison Empathy,' revealed that "this information significantly influences consumers' product choices and contributes to improving the perception of excellent small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) products."

According to a survey conducted on 600 consumers who had experience accessing quality comparison information, 83.0% of respondents answered that "quality comparison information was useful during the information-gathering stage before purchasing a product." Additionally, 94.1% of consumers who checked the quality comparison information and then purchased related products responded that "the quality comparison information actually influenced their purchase decision."

Objective quality comparison information was also found to be effective in improving consumer perception of excellent SME products. Due to vague concerns about the quality and safety of SME products, only 67.0% of respondents answered that they "usually have a positive view of SME products." However, after confirming information about excellent SME products through quality comparison information, the percentage of respondents who answered "they think positively" increased by 24.5 percentage points to 91.5%.

The proportion of respondents who answered that they "doubt the quality" of SME products also decreased from 21.7% to 7.8% after checking information about excellent SME products through quality comparison information, showing an improvement of 13.9 percentage points.

Furthermore, 90.7% of survey respondents said they "would use information on excellent SME products when purchasing SME products in the future," indicating that many consumers intend to utilize Comparison Empathy’s quality comparison information to select superior SME products.

Regarding the frequency of providing quality comparison information, 96.3% of consumers responded that it is necessary to provide updates at least once every six months to a year for major items such as vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. This indicates a need to shorten the information provision cycle.

A Korea Consumer Agency official stated, "It was found that the quality comparison information provided by Comparison Empathy has a significant impact on consumers' product choices," and added, "This year as well, starting with moisturizing creams, we plan to continuously provide quality comparison information to support consumers' rational choices."

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