What Is the Secret Behind 60-Fold Sales Growth of Banchan Shop in Sinyeong Market, Yangcheon-gu?

Yangcheon-gu 'Youth Digital Supporters' Active... First Round of 'Digital Supporters' Support Ends This Year, Second Round Starts in June... Traditional Market Side Dish Shops Achieve Unprecedented Sales Boom with Nationwide Online Delivery

Kim Soo-young, Yangcheon District Mayor, with the digital supporters (center)

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young) completed the first phase of the ‘Youth Digital Supporters’ project from February to May this year and has been conducting the second phase of support targeting local small business owners since June 1.

The most notable achievement during the first support period was the sales growth of a side dish store in the traditional market.

Shinwol 1-dong Shinyeong Market is the largest traditional market in Yangcheon-gu and was frequented by many local residents, but due to COVID-19, the number of visitors decreased significantly, causing merchants’ sales to drop sharply.

Lee Hyung-kwon, the owner of the side dish store ‘Kkiniwachan’ operating in this market, came across the ‘Youth Digital Supporters’ project news in the Yangcheon-gu newsletter and applied to the district office to start online sales as a way to overcome this situation.

At first, Mr. Lee was not familiar with terms like ‘digital’ and ‘online commerce,’ but after taking photos of the side dishes to upload to the online store and seeing the results, he gained confidence.

Subsequently, by working closely with the Youth Digital Supporters to complete the product detail page and focusing more on developing new sales channels, sales increased by an astonishing 60 times from April this year, demonstrating the power of ‘digital.’

This news quickly spread to surrounding merchants in the market, and many merchants who heard the word of mouth visited the district office’s Job and Economy Division to receive support from the supporters.

The district office announced that it continues to operate the ‘Youth Digital Supporters’ project, which supports small business owners in developing online market channels and online marketing, and is continuously recruiting supported companies.

Mr. Lee said, “While running a business inside the market, I unconsciously settled down and lived like a frog in a well, but now I am delivering side dishes nationwide. The new challenge was not easy, but having young people together made me feel more secure, and I want to recommend it to other small business owners around me,” giving a thumbs-up.

Kim Soo-young, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, stated, “As the influence of the online market is expected to grow even in the post-COVID-19 era, we plan to continue the ‘Youth Digital Supporters’ project to help small business owners with digital transformation.”

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