Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
TMON grows on baby goods sales
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
Ticket Monster (TMON), one of the nation’s leading deal-of-the day websites, enjoyed fast growth last year on the back of robust sales of baby products.
The company said that young mothers who often use smartphones led the sales growth by purchasing baby goods from their mobile devices.
According to the e-commerce site, owned by the Chicago-based Groupon, its transaction volume for such goods exceeded 20 billion won in December, up sharply from 2 billion won in March 2012. The number of baby product consumers increased by some 350 percent during the same period.
“The growth in the transaction volume for baby products was mainly led by female consumers in their 20s to 30s, who account for some 90 percent of the entire consumer base for the products,” according to the firm.
Buying baby products also accounts for more than 70 percent of the use of the Ticket Monster mobile application, a large portion compared to other social commerce businesses, the firm added.
“Young married female consumers, who are likely to be sensitive to price, account for most of the customers in social commerce sites,” CEO Daniel Shin said in a statement.
The firm said that the increase in the average price of baby products in Korea may be what brings consumers to the social commerce site.
An official pointed out that the growth of the transaction volume was backed by the rising number of consumers who buy with their mobile devices, which simplifies the purchasing process.
The official added that mothers who are not able to go out often to buy baby products owing to their child care responsibilities are fond of buying products online.
“Mobile commerce also helps relieve the burden of turning on the computer to buy products online,” the official said.
Wet tissues and diapers, which are the two bestselling baby products in the world, were also the most searched products on Ticket Monster last year. Meanwhile, French wet tissue brand MonDouDou was the bestselling item on the e-commerce site last year, with 700 million won in sales, while Wilton Kids ski wear and Fisher-Price toys came in second and third, respectively.
“We are putting more efforts in acquiring high-quality baby products as well as expanding promotion in the baby product industry to provide a better service for female mobile phone users,” Shin added.