'Get It at Half Price'... Shocking Discounts Continue Amid High Inflation

Major Online and Offline Retailers Hold '50% Discount' Event
To Alleviate Consumer Burden in High Inflation Era
Also Attracting Customers with 'Special Price Discounts'

Major retailers are launching consecutive 'half-price sales' to welcome the New Year. As high inflation continues, these large-scale discount events are seen as a strategy to open consumers' tightly closed wallets.

According to the distribution industry on the 9th, Coupang is holding the 'Black Daily Necessities Week,' offering up to 50% off on daily necessities until the 14th. During the discount period, essential daily items such as detergents, fabric softeners, toothbrushes, and body care products will be sold at affordable prices to ease customers' inflation burdens. Coupang is offering up to 50% off on about 800 products during the event, and some items will be available at fixed prices of 990 won and 1,990 won in a first-come, first-served special sale.

Coupang Holds 'New Year's Resolution Special Sale' Event.
[Image provided by Coupang]

Earlier, Coupang held a 50% discount event at the start of the New Year. On the 3rd, it launched the 'New Year's Resolution Special' event, offering up to 50% off on self-care related products such as sports goods and health supplements. In addition, Coupang plans to regularly hold food special sales and will host '99 Special' events on the 9th, 19th, and 29th of every month.

Offline retailers are also actively conducting discount events targeting the New Year. Homeplus, a large supermarket, announced on the 3rd that it will hold the '2024 Homeplus Price Stabilization Project' throughout the year. The first week event, running until the 10th, will offer up to 50% discounts mainly on food items.

Convenience store GS25 launched the 'God Sale' event from the first day of the New Year, offering discounts such as buy-one-get-one-free (1+1) products to stabilize prices. Seven Eleven also started a price discount event focusing on ingredients and processed foods from the 9th. Lotte Hi-Mart is running a 'Mega Sale' throughout January, offering discounts on about 300 high-demand products such as TVs and refrigerators to celebrate the New Year.

Homeplus launched the '2024 Homeplus Price Stabilization Project' on the 4th. Models are posing at a Homeplus store.
[Photo by Homeplus]

These large-scale New Year discount events by the distribution industry emphasize that they are aimed at easing consumer burdens amid rising prices. In fact, the consumer price index that consumers feel has been steadily rising. According to Statistics Korea, last year’s consumer price index recorded 111.59 (2020=100), up 3.6 percentage points from the previous year, continuing the mid-3% increase trend. This is a slowdown compared to the 5.1% inflation rate in 2022 but is significantly higher than the 2% range in 2021.

In particular, the living cost index, which is composed mainly of frequently purchased items and closely reflects the perceived inflation, rose by 3.9%, and the fresh food index surged 6.8% compared to the previous year, with fresh fruits (9.7%) showing a high increase. A Coupang official said, "We are holding this discount event to reduce customers' financial burdens by offering quality daily necessities at affordable prices," adding, "Since high inflation is likely to continue this year, we plan to prepare and present better products and benefits."

The continuous discount events in the distribution industry are also interpreted as a strategy to overcome the recession. With consumers reluctant to open their wallets due to high inflation, retailers aim to attract customers with special-priced products. A distribution industry official explained, "Special discount events have some effect on attracting customers."

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