Dongwon Mall's one-stop delivery service gains popularity

Actress Park Bo-young promotes Dongwon Mall, an online food shopping website run by Dongwon F&B. The site is gaining popularity thanks to its one-stop delivery service providing products from a wide range of discount chains at one time. / Courtesy of Dongwon F&B

By Kim Jae-won

Kim Hye-jin, 34, a housewife in Seoul, had shopped at a number of different discount chains because each one had its own items that she wanted to buy.

But she no longer needed to do this after finding Dongwon Mall, an online shopping retailer that offers a one-stop delivery service from a wide range of discount chains, including U.S. brand Costco.

In addition, Kim was given subsidiaries and discount coupons from Dongwon for spending more than 200,000 won over the last two months. She was graded as red, the top-ranking customer level.

Kim is not alone. In 2015, customers made a combined 400,000 orders through Dongwon Mall, making the online food shopping site the most popular in the industry.

“Dongwon Mall has grown into the top food shopping mall by introducing products from various brands both at home and abroad,” said Kang Yong-soo, a director at Dongwon F&B’s online business department.

“We will continue our aggressive marketing activities by giving new benefits to one-person households and improving our Chinese website.”

Dongwon’s one-stop delivery service, called “band delivery,” is the mall’s hottest service. Customers can buy a combined 6,000 products through the service, consisting of 1,000 Dongwon products, 1,500 Costco items and 3,000 goods from discount chains among others. In particular, they can buy Costco products through the mall without paying membership fees.

The mall also runs an outlet store which sells perishable foods at low prices. It is popular among those who consume foods right after buying them.

Dongwon hosts a discount event selling specific items at low prices on a designated day. For instance, people can buy diapers at a lower price on Monday while they can get discounts for tissues on Tuesday.

The company also sells mineral water at half price throughout the year.

Dongwon runs a mobile application in which people can check out its best items in real time. The mall recommends items to buy based on their past purchases.

The company also opened a Chinese website, targeting Chinese customers who want to buy Korean products online. Popular products include canned tuna and cosmetics. They can buy local items without worries over customs. Dongwon hired actress Park Bo-young as the company’s promotion model, appealing to customers in China.

Dongwon Mall is run by Dongwon F&B, a food and beverage subsidiary of Dongwon Group. It sells a total of 70,000 items, including 1,000 food products. It has 600,000 members and 25,000 daily visitors.