In the Home-Stay Era, Quick Direction Changes 'Pivoting' Continue to Gain Popularity

Identifying Issues from the Consumer Perspective and Shifting Towards Enhanced Convenience

One of Zinus's representative 'pivoting' strategies is the compressed mattress delivered to your doorstep.
[Photo by Zinus]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] As indoor living continues for an extended period, lifestyle patterns are changing. Homes are transforming into multi-functional spaces such as home offices and home cafes, and fresh food can be purchased without going outside. It is a time when companies also need to change in line with lifestyle patterns and digital transformation trends.

In "Trend Korea 2021," written by Professor Kim Nando's team at Seoul National University, the "pivoting" strategy?rapidly shifting business in response to crises or changing trends?was identified as one of the key keywords for 2021.

Originally a sports term meaning to shift the axis, pivoting refers to a series of processes or strategies that quickly adjust the direction of products or marketing by nimbly responding to consumers' changing behavior patterns. Companies that clearly understand what consumers want and challenge change are receiving much love from consumers.

Zinus: Compressed Mattress with Lower Prices and Increased Accessibility

Zinus is one of the companies that made it to Amazon's bestseller list through an unstoppable pivoting strategy. The mattress market, which was originally offline-centered, shifted online with Zinus entering Amazon in 2009.

Zinus identified that the U.S. mattress market was confined to offline stores, resulting in lower consumer accessibility and consequently higher product prices. At the same time, they highly valued the rapid growth of the online shopping market in North America, including Amazon and Walmart, and developed an online-exclusive mattress applying their existing tent compression technology.

Later, through their own production facilities, they reduced the mattress volume to less than one-fifth and introduced compressed mattresses packed in boxes and assembly bed frames minimized to fit in a single box at reasonable prices. This positioned them as a leading online furniture brand optimized for packaging and delivery at affordable prices.

As a result, since entering Amazon in 2009, Zinus achieved remarkable growth, increasing sales from 94.7 billion KRW in 2014 to 817.1 billion KRW in 2019?an 8.6-fold increase?and was newly included in the KOSPI 200 index last November.

Netflix: From DVD Rental Business to Global OTT Platform

Netflix, which is responsible for many people's leisure time during stay-at-home life, originally started as a DVD rental business.

Recognizing from the consumer's perspective that the DVD rental process was cumbersome and the high late fees were unfair, Netflix shifted to a subscription service with a monthly fee. At the same time, they introduced a recommendation system called Cinematch, which continuously provided DVDs that people liked to maintain subscriptions.

Later, in 2007, they applied streaming services and expanded their service area worldwide. Netflix expanded its business by producing original content that people would like through consumer data analysis and established itself as a global streaming service with 195 million paid subscribers worldwide.

Starbucks: Delivering the Same Taste from Store to Your Doorstep

Starbucks Korea recently started a delivery service in response to changing customer demands due to the COVID-19 crisis.

On the 27th, Starbucks opened its Yeoksam Emart store as a delivery test store and operated it on a trial basis. Unlike existing stores where customers can stay and pick up orders directly, this store is a delivery-only pilot store. Orders can only be made through the Starbucks mobile application (app), and about 60 types of beverages, 40 types of food, and 50 types of merchandise that can maintain quality during delivery are available.

Starbucks Korea continues digital experiments such as launching Siren Order, personalized recommendation services using big data, introducing mobile voice ordering systems, and piloting cashless stores to meet changing customer demands.

A Zinus representative said, "The success of a business depends on the speed of responding to consumers' changing behavior patterns," adding, "It is no exaggeration to say that the unstoppable pivoting strategy made Zinus what it is today."

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