Two Years of COVID-19 Spread: Cooking 'Milkit' Meals and Taking 'Yeongyangje' Supplements

Riding the 'With Corona' Wave, Fashion and Beauty Consumption Rebounds This Year
Increased 'Jipkok' Boosts Popularity of Interior Design and Companion Plants

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the COVID-19 pandemic continued for a full two years, the growth of meal kits and home meal replacements (HMR) stood out in the domestic consumer market. With increasing interest in health, demand for health supplements and other health foods also surged significantly.

Rapid Rise of the Meal Kit Market Due to Preference for 'Home-cooked Meals'

According to 'Jungboki Tracker' operated by Open Survey on the 18th, the consumption of convenience foods in Korea, which had risen about 3% over four years from 2016 to 2019, increased by 5% between January and March last year, right after the spread of COVID-19. This was because consumers who experienced meal kits, which can be easily prepared just like dining out, were captivated by their convenience. As the HMR market expanded, the hotel industry also rolled up their sleeves for the meal kit business, with Lotte Hotel, Hotel Shilla, and Chosun Hotel continuously launching products under the category of 'hotel meal kits.'

With growing concerns and interest in health, consumers’ purchases of supplements to maintain their health in advance also jumped significantly compared to before. According to statistics from iHerb, a health food distribution company, supplement sales surged by 36% in August and September this year, when the situation was serious enough to discuss raising social distancing to level 4, compared to January last year before COVID-19 spread in earnest. Among these, vitamin D accounted for the largest share. In October 2020, when former U.S. President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 and reportedly prescribed vitamin D, interest in it also increased domestically, and iHerb Korea’s vitamin D sales were recorded to have increased by 24% compared to the previous month.

Lee Joo-hyun, PR team leader at iHerb, explained, "Among the 160 countries iHerb delivers to, South Korea ranks in the top 3 markets, showing that even before the pandemic, Korean consumers had great interest in health. Recently, sales of immunity boosters and stress relievers have increased by more than 20-30% compared to before COVID-19, indicating that Korean consumers’ interest has grown accordingly."

"Staying Home is Boring" ... New Hobbies Emerging

With the expansion of social distancing, telecommuting, and staying home, interest and demand for interior design increased, leading to a 60% and 10% growth in transaction amounts for lifestyle goods and furniture specialty malls, respectively. The representative living vertical platform 'Oneul-ui Jip' (Today’s House) achieved a transaction amount of 150 billion KRW (combined commerce and construction brokerage) in September alone, marking its highest monthly performance.

New hobbies are also noticeable. According to a consumer perception survey conducted by the Rural Development Administration to clarify the concepts of 'companion plants' and 'healthcare plants,' 51.1% responded that interest in companion plants increased after COVID-19. By age group, interest in companion plants increased more significantly among those in their 20s and 30s (61.1%) than those aged 60 and above (46.3%) compared to before COVID-19.

On the other hand, the beauty market suffered as sales of color cosmetics declined with mask-wearing after COVID-19. However, with the phased daily recovery (With Corona) implemented last month and increased outings, transactions in beauty and fashion items saw a temporary increase. On 11st, makeup product sales increased by 43% compared to the same period last month, and thanks to the popularity of winter clothing including coats and outerwear, brand fashion sales also rose by 80%.

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