Seoul City Offers 7% Discount on Online and Delivery App Exclusive 'eSeoul Sarang Gift Certificates' Worth 10 Billion Won

Issued from the 21st... Up to 700,000 KRW per person per month purchase, maximum holding up to 2 million KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 20th that it will issue an online-only ‘e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate’ starting from the 21st, reflecting the changed consumption trends such as the spread of non-face-to-face consumption and the surge in delivery app orders. The ‘e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate’ will be sold at a 7% discount, with an issuance scale of 10 billion KRW.

The city is issuing the e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate to help small business owners, whose offline distribution channels have been blocked due to increased online consumption, by expanding the usage of the gift certificate to small business owner-exclusive online malls and various delivery apps, while also increasing convenience for citizens. The main usage locations of the e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate are the small business owner-exclusive section ‘e-Seoul Love Shop#’ within the online shopping mall ‘11st’, and five delivery apps participating in the ‘Zero Delivery Union’: Wemakeprice O, Ttaenggeoyo, Meokkebi, Mamma Meokja, and Ro Market.

‘e-Seoul Love Shop#’ is a small business owner-exclusive section jointly operated by the city and the online shopping mall 11st, hosting about 68,000 small business owner products totaling 30 million items. In particular, the sales commission has been reduced by more than 30% compared to before, reducing the burden on small business owners, and various supports such as business operator training for stable operation are also provided.

‘Zero Delivery Union’ is a public-private cooperative order delivery service started to solve the problem of high delivery brokerage fees and reduce the burden on small business owners and consumers. Unlike other local governments that create separate public apps, it is a form that gathers existing private apps currently in operation without additional construction or operating costs.

Additionally, participating delivery apps charge franchise stores brokerage fees of 2% or less, which is evaluated to have an impact on lowering delivery fees and creating a reasonable delivery market.

Gift certificates can be purchased at a 7% discounted price through Seoul citizens’ life finance platform ‘Seoul Pay Plus’, as well as Shinhan SOL, T-money Pay, and Money Tree apps. Purchases can be made in units of 10,000 KRW within a monthly limit of 700,000 KRW, and up to 2 million KRW can be held per person. Unlike offline autonomous district-issued gift certificates (sold at a 10% discount) supported by national funds, the ‘e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate’ is issued entirely with city funds, so the discount rate is lowered to about 7% to allow more citizens to purchase and enjoy benefits.

Han Young-hee, Seoul City’s Director of Labor, Fairness, and Coexistence Policy, said, “Considering the high demand for the Seoul Love Gift Certificate (metropolitan) issued on the 14th, additional issuance is planned in July, and the Seoul Local Love Gift Certificate (autonomous district) is also planned to be issued in September.”

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