People return to offline supermarkets for daily necessities
People queue outside E-Mart in Suseong-gu, Daegu, Monday, to purchase face masks. / Korea Times photo by Park Seo-gang
By Kim Jae-heun
By Kim Jae-heun
Offline stores are seeing an increase in sales after a surge in online shopping has overwhelmed online suppliers.
The initial jump in online purchases was sparked by fears of the new coronavirus, leading shoppers to avoid large supermarkets. However, local e-commerce firms did not expect such a sudden and large-scale shift in people's shopping habits, leading to a number of problems.
Many e-commerce companies have failed to deliver food on time, and have been forced to close their delivery reservation service due to a backlog of online orders.
Out of necessity, consumers have been pushed to return to supermarkets to purchase their daily necessities.
Accordingly, sales at Lotte Marts across the country increased by nearly 4 percent between Feb. 19 and 24, compared to sales from a year ago.
Instant foods such as pre-cooked rice, packets of instant ramen and bottles of water are largely leading the increase, with sales soaring by 100 percent, 80 percent, and 30 percent respectively, a Lotte Mart official said.
“In the early stages of the new coronavirus, people preferred shopping online. However, many felt betrayed by lagging services as customers were told their delivery would arrive in April or that they would never get it,” a Lotte Mart official said.
“However, we see this as a temporary phenomenon. When things settle down, people will go back to online shopping. Now, people are returning to offline stores because they are in desperate need of daily necessities that are out of stock online,” a Lotte Mart official added.
The country's largest retailer, E-Mart, is also seeing a significant sales increase in the food category.
Between Feb. 20 and 26, sales of rice, instant ramen, water, and canned food at E-Mart went up by 55.4 percent, 55.5 percent, 37.5 percent, and 75.6 percent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019.
“More people are avoiding going out to eat and it is leading to an increase in sales of food that people can cook at home. This is a trend in all offline stores across the country. We will have to see if people will continue to visit offline stores after the virus situation gets settled, but for now, we believe customers are coming because online stores ran out of stock,” an E-Mart official said.
Both Lotte Mart and E-Mart said that, unlike the e-commerce firms, they will have no problem supplying food.
Meanwhile, E-Mart's online store SSG.com said it will increase the number of its distribution vehicles by 20 percent in every region to cope with the increasing number of orders.
Morning delivery services in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province will be expanded by 50 percent, enabling the company to deliver 15,000 orders, up from 10,000.
The number of orders made on SSG.com has been rising steadily each day since last weekend, causing the company to have to pause delivery services until Friday of this week.
“We have allocated 60 more vehicles and increased manpower at the distribution center to cope with current surge of online orders. This will allow us to deliver 60,000 items, up from 50,000 per day,” an E-Mart official said.
The retail giants are also urging the government to move their obligatory non-business day from Sunday, to any weekday.
Currently, the government bans hypermarkets from operating on every second and fourth Sunday of the month to help sales at traditional markets.
The retail giants' online platforms close twice a month, too.