Despite COVID-19, 'Sajaegi' Lasted Only 3 Days... CJ Logistics Ensures "Stable Delivery System"

March 2nd: Record High of 9.6 Million Transactions Processed by a Single Domestic Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] Amid the global surge in panic buying of emergency supplies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been revealed that in South Korea, such panic buying lasted only for a brief period of three days. Analysts suggest that the country's stable delivery system played a key role in curbing the panic buying frenzy.

CJ Logistics announced on the 9th that after analyzing big data of approximately 180 million items from February 1 to March 14, about six weeks during the spread of COVID-19, these findings were made.

According to CJ Logistics, after the announcement of the 31st confirmed COVID-19 case on February 18, online panic buying of emergency supplies such as bottled water, ramen, and canned food was observed. During the fourth week of February (23rd?29th), orders for these emergency supplies nearly tripled compared to the previous week. Considering that weekend shipments are registered with tracking information on the following Monday, it is analyzed that the surge in orders occurred during the first weekend after the 31st case, from February 21 to 23.

Specifically, canned food orders increased fourfold from about 40,000 in the third week of February (16th?22nd) to about 140,000 in the fourth week, while ramen orders more than doubled from about 120,000 to 310,000. Taking into account the nature of parcel delivery, which ships items by box, CJ Logistics estimates that at least 2.8 million cans of food and 930 boxes of ramen were delivered during this period.

However, after the fourth week of February, this panic buying phenomenon rapidly subsided. Ramen deliveries decreased by 39% and 33% in the first (1st?7th) and second (8th?14th) weeks of March, respectively, entering a stabilization phase. Bottled water, which had increased 2.5 times in the fourth week of February, also decreased by 41% and 25% during the same periods, returning to normal levels.

A CJ Logistics official stated, "Although order volumes surged from the weekend of the third week of February, consumers quickly regained confidence as deliveries proceeded smoothly." He added, "The absence of offline panic buying afterward and the increase in online shopping for everyday items instead of emergency supplies support the analysis that 'parcel delivery prevented panic buying.'"

Meanwhile, based on CJ Logistics' delivery data, the highest overall volume was recorded in the first week of March. The fourth week of February, when COVID-19 spread intensified, saw a 22% increase from the previous week, reaching about 32 million items, and the first week of March, when social distancing was fully implemented, peaked at about 33 million items. On a daily basis, March 2 recorded 9.6 million processed items, marking the highest volume ever handled by a single company since the launch of parcel delivery services in South Korea.

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