SSG.com Sees Surge in 'Gift Sending' Usage Amid Growing Contactless Consumption

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] As non-face-to-face consumption became the norm due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), SSG.com’s 'Gift Sending' service sales have significantly increased.

On the 13th, SSG.com announced that sales of the Gift Sending service from January to November this year increased by 64.6% compared to the same period last year. The Gift Sending feature is a service developed to allow easy and fast purchase and delivery of 10 million products within SSG.com, ranging from food to cosmetics and luxury goods, even without the recipient’s address.

The place where the use of the Gift Sending service was most prominent recently was the Starbucks online shop, which opened for the first time on the afternoon of the 25th. From the 2nd to the 8th of this month, the number of Gift Sending orders increased by 50% compared to the first week after opening. Among these, the highest number of customers purchased ‘Starbucks e-Card gift certificates’ and 23 MD products such as tumblers released simultaneously offline and online for the Christmas season.

This is mainly analyzed as a result of the social distancing measures being strengthened and the increased demand for gifts at the end of the year. In fact, Starbucks ‘e-Card 30,000 KRW exchange voucher’ and ‘e-Card 50,000 KRW exchange voucher’ quickly entered the 1st and 2nd places in the SSG.com Gift Sending service and have continued to maintain top rankings.

Also, during the same period, the ‘Coffee + Cake’ set product prepared exclusively for the Christmas season showed sales trends close to the best-selling product ‘Dior Lip Glow,’ which did not lose its number one spot in Gift Sending sales rankings throughout the year. ‘Black and Gold Stanley Thermos,’ ‘Green Siren Classic Mug,’ and ‘Concord Siren White Tumbler’ were among the top 50 in overall Gift Sending sales.

In addition, the category that showed a high sales growth rate through Gift Sending was the ‘Beauty’ category, including cosmetics. Analyzing purchase data from January to November this year, sales increased by 107.6% compared to the same period last year, which is more than twice the growth rate of the entire beauty category during the same period. Notably, one out of four customers purchasing cosmetics through the Gift Sending service chose color cosmetics, showing a difference from the general purchasing trend where basic cosmetics such as skincare have a higher proportion.

The proportion of Gift Sending in the ‘Grocery (Food)’ category also increased by about 81.6% during the same period, reflecting the changed Gift Sending trend due to non-face-to-face consumption. More than half, 58.9%, of the total sales composition was ‘fresh food.’ Among them, gift sets such as ‘fruit’ and ‘meat’ accounted for a high proportion.

Representative examples included ‘Shine Muscat’ and ‘Grilling Hanwoo (Korean beef).’ The prices of the top 50 sales items were mainly in the range of 50,000 KRW to less than 100,000 KRW, indicating a preference for ‘value for sentiment’ products rather than ‘cost-effective’ products when purchasing gifts.

Lee Jong-hoon, Marketing Manager of SSG.com, said, “As more customers are preparing year-end gifts online, we are striving to broaden consumer choices. Among them, the Starbucks online shop has received favorable reviews from customers, and starting from the 18th, we plan to additionally introduce five ‘Merry Series’ products, including tumblers, mugs, and glasses, released exclusively online.”

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