"Soaring Prices Drive Home Cooking Over Dining Out"... Gmarket Sees Up to 7x Increase in Fresh and Processed Food Sales

Per Capita Purchase Amount, or Average Spending per Customer, Also Increases

Increase rate of fresh and processed food sales. (Photo by Gmarket)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] Recently, as high inflation continues, it has been found that consumers are increasingly choosing home-cooked meals over dining out.

According to Gmarket, sales of major fresh food products in the third quarter of this year significantly increased compared to the previous year. Key ingredients such as rice (22%), packaged kimchi (21%), chicken and eggs (68%), pork (28%), and beef (23%) all sold well.

Sales of cooking oil (30%), gochujang (15%), doenjang (24%), soy sauce (13%), and seasonings and condiments (24%) also increased. Sales of processed livestock products grew sevenfold, and processed seafood products showed a 250% growth rate. Snacks sold 58% more, and ramen sales increased by 10%.

The average purchase amount per person, or customer unit price, increased by 18% for fresh food and 8% for processed food. This means that if a customer spent 1,000,000 KRW on fresh food shopping on Gmarket during the third quarter last year, they spent 1,180,000 KRW this year.

A Gmarket representative said, “As prices have risen significantly, demand for dining out has slowed, and there is a trend of returning to home-cooked meals. The advantage of shopping through online malls is that consumers can conveniently compare ingredients at various price points, receive additional discounts, and have their purchases delivered conveniently.”

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