Naju Sarang Gift Certificates Had Significant Economic Impact

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Kang In-gyu) announced on the 19th that the increase in sales felt by small business owners and self-employed individuals is becoming clear due to the expanded supply of Naju Sarang Gift Certificates.

Since April, various policy support gift certificates provided to citizens to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and the 10% discount sales policy have led to a visible economic ripple effect, including an increase in general sales.

The city conducted a survey and interview from the 1st to the 5th of this month targeting 100 Naju Sarang Gift Certificate affiliated stores to analyze the impact of the gift certificates on the local economy and announced the results on the same day.

The surveyed affiliated stores included 50 in the original downtown area, 30 in the Innovation City, and 20 in the towns and townships, covering a total of 100 stores across various industries such as wholesale and retail, food service, and personal services.

From February to last month, the survey investigated ▲ sales decline after the outbreak of COVID-19 ▲ changes in sales after special discounts on gift certificates and policy support payments ▲ the proportion of gift certificate payments in total sales ▲ awareness of gift certificate support policies, among other factors.

According to the survey results, all surveyed businesses experienced a sharp decline in average monthly sales compared to the previous year in February and March, when the domestic spread of COVID-19 intensified.

The sales decrease was distributed as follows: ▲ 5 stores with less than 10% decrease ▲ 22 stores with 11-20% decrease ▲ 33 stores with 21-40% decrease ▲ 40 stores with over 41% decrease, showing that 73% of affiliated stores experienced a sales drop of more than 20%.

In particular, among the 50 affiliated stores in the original downtown area including Yeongsanpo, 24 stores (48%) saw sales drop by more than 40%, indicating that this area was more severely affected by COVID-19 compared to other commercial districts such as Innovation City.

On the other hand, in April and last month, when the 10% discount sales and policy support payments for gift certificates were fully implemented, most local businesses showed an upward sales trend.

Over these two months, the sales increase was as follows: ▲ 36 stores with less than 10% increase ▲ 40 stores with 11-20% increase ▲ 18 stores with 21-40% increase ▲ 5 stores with over 41% increase, with 98% of surveyed businesses experiencing sales growth.

Previously struggling original downtown stores showed that 17 out of 50 stores (34%) increased sales by more than 20% in April and May, confirming the maximized ripple effect of the gift certificates.

Meanwhile, during this period, the proportion of gift certificate payments in total sales among surveyed businesses was ▲ 36 stores with less than 10% ▲ 32 stores with 11-30% ▲ 7 stores with 31-50% ▲ 25 stores with over 51%.

Awareness of the gift certificate support policies was high, with 96% of all affiliated stores recognizing them, indicating effective promotion of related policies.

So far, the city has supplied Naju Sarang Gift Certificates worth 43.4 billion KRW, including 12.3 billion KRW from general sales and 31.1 billion KRW from policy support funds such as government emergency disaster relief funds, livelihood expenses for vulnerable groups, and public interest allowances for farmers and fishermen.

Notably, as of the 28th of last month, the cumulative general sales of gift certificates surpassed 10 billion KRW, breaking last year's cumulative sales of 4.15 billion KRW by more than 2.4 times in just five months, and exceeding this year's target of 7 billion KRW by 1.4 times, continuing a strong sales performance.

Mayor Kang In-gyu stated, “This survey confirmed that expanding the supply of Naju Sarang Gift Certificates is a very effective means and policy for revitalizing the local economy through consumption promotion. In the second half of the year, we plan to greatly expand the supply of gift certificates by expanding the usage infrastructure through the issuance of the Naju Sarang Card and continuously maintaining the 10% discount.”

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