"Providing Smart IT Technologies and Solutions"... Companies Helping Small and Medium-Sized Businesses with Digital Transformation (DX) Draw Attention

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Min-jae] As non-face-to-face consumption has become the new normal after the COVID-19 pandemic, companies supporting the digital transformation (DX) of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) through advanced IT capabilities and solutions are attracting attention. The fields include e-commerce optimized marketing, food ingredient cost management, traditional market support, and beauty and haircare DX projects.

Big data marketing solution company Storelink supports efficient data-driven decision-making throughout the entire e-commerce business process for enterprise customers as well as SMBs and individual sellers. Storelink currently collects and analyzes over 2 million data points daily from major open markets such as Naver and Coupang to build marketing prediction models.

Through various platforms with intuitive user interfaces (UI), Storelink enables SMB customers to easily check key marketing indicators such as purchase rate, brand engagement, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

In particular, M-Javis has received great response mainly from small brands and individual sellers who find it difficult to acquire expertise in data. This solution is a chatbot service that allows users to utilize some of the main functions of the Storelink platform through simple mobile chat.

Startup Spoqa introduced ‘Dodo Cart,’ a food ingredient cost management app to support the digital transformation of food service workers. Dodo Cart is an IT solution that provides free reports analyzing expenditure costs systematically when food service workers upload photos of food ingredient purchase receipts to the app.

It analyzes the store’s food ingredient usage volume and price changes, as well as changes in suppliers. It provides monthly expenditure analysis, order amounts, actual payment amounts, and usage ratios by supplier. According to the company, restaurant owners prefer it because it helps prevent unnecessary expenses and achieve cost reduction effects through systematic cost management and prompt response.

Kakao recently signed a four-party agreement with Kakao Impact, MKYU (MK&You University), and the Shinyeong Market Merchants Association to support the digital transformation of traditional markets. Shinyeong Market in Yangcheon-gu was selected as the pilot implementation target. Kakao plans to officially start the program in mid-July. This agreement was promoted as part of Kakao’s ‘Sosin Sangin Project.’

Kakao and Kakao Impact aim to activate mobile communication based on KakaoTalk to secure loyal customers for individual stores within the market and induce offline visits. They provide resources necessary for DX, as well as education, marketing, and promotion support. The main goal is to help merchants nationwide secure loyal customers through KakaoTalk channels and carry out various mobile marketing activities.

KT also recently signed a DX business agreement with eight companies including beauty and haircare franchise Tourus. Through this agreement, KT plans to focus on enhancing value for both small business owners and store customers by focusing on changes in beauty salon spaces.

KT provides essential IT services for stores and various DX services needed by small business owners. They plan to offer customized services integrating ‘Boss AI Secretary Pack,’ an AI service that automatically handles phone calls, reservations, orders, and store promotions, and ‘AI Disinfection Robot’ with beauty and haircare solution providers.

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