"The World's Biggest Shopping Season Approaches"…Card Companies Go All Out in Marketing Ahead of Guanggunje and Black Friday

Meeting events like Gwanggunje and Black Friday
Offering instant discounts and cashback benefits

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Card companies are focusing their efforts on overseas direct purchases and online marketing ahead of Guanggunje and Black Friday.

According to the industry on the 9th, ahead of China's largest shopping event, 'Guanggunje' on the 11th, and the United States' largest shopping festival, 'Black Friday' on the 27th, card companies are launching various discount and cashback events targeting overseas direct purchase customers. This is because demand is surging from customers who want to buy the same products much cheaper through overseas direct purchases than domestically. For this reason, global shopping seasons such as Black Friday are also considered a major opportunity for domestic card companies to expand card consumption.

All domestic card companies are offering up to $30 instant discounts and 70,000 KRW cashback benefits on a first-come, first-served basis in celebration of Guanggunje and Black Friday. They also provide prize events specialized for overseas direct purchases and free direct purchase insurance that compensates for delayed delivery, damage, or returns.

In particular, this year, due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), non-face-to-face consumption has increased, leading to strengthened online marketing. In fact, non-face-to-face payments surged by 17% compared to last year due to COVID-19. According to the 'Domestic Payment Trends' statistics released by the Bank of Korea, the average daily non-face-to-face payment amount from January to September this year was 833 billion KRW, a 17% increase from the previous year, while physical card payment volume decreased by 5.6%.

However, offline events are still being approached cautiously. Although the government is conducting the 'Korea Sale Festa,' known as the Korean version of Black Friday, until the 15th to boost economic recovery, and has resumed eight major consumption coupon events including accommodation, travel, and dining that were suspended due to the resurgence of COVID-19, card companies are not conducting separate marketing. This is due to the atmosphere of refraining from excessive marketing and concerns about the resurgence of COVID-19.

An industry official said, "Events related to overseas direct purchases are somewhat freer compared to domestic-related marketing," adding, "Since traditional marketing peaks such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok were restrained due to COVID-19 this year, there is a heated atmosphere for overseas and online marketing ahead of the global shopping season."

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