Jung Yong-jin's 'Shinsegae Universe' Locks in Loyal Customers

SSG.com, Gmarket Global, and Starbucks Membership Integration in First Half of This Year
Leveraging Starbucks Brand Power to Encourage Paid Membership Sign-ups
Work for Synergy of Acquired Businesses Last Year
"Aiming to Be the Strongest On-Offline Player Beyond Online Transition"

Jung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] Shinsegae Group is accelerating its membership integration efforts this year to establish a 'complete online-offline ecosystem.' The strategy is to build an integrated online-offline ecosystem to realize Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin’s vision of the 'Shinsegae Universe' and to retain loyal customers within this ecosystem.

According to the distribution industry on the 18th, Shinsegae Group will launch an integrated membership linking SSG.com, Gmarket Global, and Starbucks in the first half of this year. The plan was detailed earlier through Emart’s IR, and at an online video conference held yesterday by CEO Kang Hee-seok with SSG.com employees, it was emphasized that this year marks the inaugural year for building a complete online-offline ecosystem. At the meeting, CEO Kang urged for corporate culture innovation to ensure the smooth progress of the integrated membership service to be launched in the first half of the year.

Shinsegae Group made aggressive acquisitions last year. To respond to the rapidly changing retail environment, it acquired Gmarket Global and W Concept, and to strengthen its ecosystem, it purchased SSG Landers (a professional baseball team). This year, while laying the foundation for these businesses to create synergy within the Shinsegae umbrella, the group also plans to actively work on settling domestic consumers?who frequently switch channels based on product assortment, price, and brand preference?within the Shinsegae Universe.

A representative example is the integrated membership. The market expects that the integrated membership to be launched in the first half of the year will strengthen paid memberships like Gmarket Global’s 'Smile Club,' applying them commonly across SSG.com and Gmarket Global to increase utilization. Additionally, by linking with the powerful brand Starbucks, it is anticipated that incentives will be provided to encourage consumers to willingly pay for and join the paid membership.

If offline memberships such as Emart’s are integrated within this year, the 'lock-in' effect on loyal customers is expected to grow even stronger. For example, a consumer could join as a paid member through SSG.com, use coupons for early morning delivery to shop at lower prices, then visit Gmarket Global to purchase household goods while enjoying paid member benefits, and use the points accumulated through these purchases to watch baseball at Incheon SSG Landers Field and spend them at Emart24. From the consumer’s perspective, this eliminates the tiring process of price comparison and offers diverse benefits across most categories within the Shinsegae ecosystem, making it highly attractive.

Furthermore, the group plans to jointly promote events such as 'Landers Day,' first introduced last year, and Gmarket Global’s major event 'Big Smile Day' across online and offline channels. Last year, during SSG Landers’ home games, Landers Day events were held in collaboration with Starbucks, Emart, and Shinsegae Department Store, featuring related products and promotions in each channel. The group intends to expand these events. Big Smile Day could also be promoted jointly across online and offline channels beyond Gmarket Global. These events could grow into large-scale shopping festivals similar to 'SSG Day,' the group’s biggest shopping event held in October. Last year, SSG Day sales increased by 35% overall, including 38% growth at SSG.com and 84% at W Concept. From the consumer’s standpoint, an increase in such large-scale discount events at the group level will further incentivize paid membership sign-ups.

Earlier, Shinsegae Property’s acquisition of the high-end winery 'Shafer Vineyard' in Napa Valley, California, USA, was also analyzed as part of efforts to secure loyal customers. To expand its ecosystem, Shinsegae is also pursuing projects such as the Hwaseong theme park and the construction of the Starfield Cheongna dome stadium. A group official said, "Shinsegae is moving with the goal of becoming the strongest player across both online and offline, not just transitioning online," adding, "Future group-level initiatives will continue to align with this goal."

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