Furniture Industry Reflects 'Hangawi New Customs' in the COVID Era... Holiday Demand Surge

Spade single recliner by Lady Furniture.
[Photo by Oheim INT]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The furniture industry is actively targeting the changing Chuseok holiday trends caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and is fully enjoying the holiday sales boom.

Although the national holiday Chuseok is approaching, the way people celebrate it is changing due to government recommendations to refrain from gatherings amid the pandemic. Instead of visiting hometowns and family gatherings, a new custom of spending Chuseok individually at home is emerging.

This atmosphere is confirmed by three keywords: 'Honchujok' (a newly coined term meaning people who spend Chuseok alone), 'filial piety gifts,' and 'online shopping.' A representative company that has well reflected these trends and is enjoying the Chuseok sales boom is the online home furnishing specialist Ohheim INT.

According to Ohheim INT, orders for single-person household furniture have significantly increased since the beginning of this month. Orders for the Spade single recliner product from Lady Furniture, operated by Ohheim, have doubled compared to last month. The Dual Form topper mattress, launched just over two weeks ago, has already exceeded its expected order targets for single-person products.

This appears to be due to the fact that single-person households have exceeded 6 million and many people want to spend Chuseok alone at home due to social distancing measures. The fact that orders for single-person products increased relatively more than multi-person products prepared for guests supports this.

Consumers looking for filial piety gifts to send to their parents instead of visiting their hometowns have also increased. As of the 13th, the search trend index for 'filial piety gifts' on the Naver portal site was 28.02, up about 63% from 17.24 last month. The click trend index surged over 650% to 73.03 compared to 1.12 last month.

Reflecting this interest, the number of people seeking Lady Furniture's 'Monster Premium Mattress' as a filial piety gift has greatly increased. Orders for this product in the past month have exceeded 500, showing an upward trend compared to the average order volume.

With direct visits difficult and contactless consumption becoming established, online shopping has become common. Furniture, which was typically a high-involvement product purchased after seeing and experiencing it in person, has now become a trend in online shopping.

Ohheim, specializing in online sales, leveraged its know-how to run a promotion on the 7th to ensure delivery of ordered products before Chuseok, which proved effective. During the event period, sales on the Lady Furniture homepage exceeded 400 million KRW, driving holiday sales.

From the 23rd through the holiday period until the 4th of next month, a Chuseok gift event will be held. Various coupons and discount benefits will be offered, and additional special gifts such as sofa tables, waterproof covers, and body pillows will be given with the purchase of certain products.

An Ohheim INT official said, "Since early this year, we have felt changes in consumption patterns in various ways due to COVID-19," adding, "Quickly applying new consumption trends to marketing ahead of Chuseok was effective."

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