The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it will hold the "Early ON Companion Festival" from the 1st to the 28th of next month.
The Early ON Companion Festival is an online-centered consumption promotion event held ahead of the May Companion Festival. It was planned to stimulate domestic recovery through product discounts for small and medium-sized enterprises and small businesses, continuing from last year.
Sales events will be held online across 40 channels, including shopping malls and home shopping.
Fifteen distribution platforms, including 11st, Gmarket, and Lotte On, will offer discounts of up to 30% on over 870 small business products. Kakao and Baedal Minjok will provide discount coupons for small business products and hold special promotional events. Home & Shopping and Public Home Shopping will also sell special products from small and medium-sized enterprises and conduct online themed promotions.
Offline, sales events will take place across 10 channels, including hypermarkets and policy stores.
Three major retailers, including Lotte Mart, Homeplus, and Hyundai Department Store, will hold special promotions and sales events for small business products. Discounts will be offered at dedicated sales areas for small and medium-sized enterprise products at Incheon International Airport's Duty-Free Store, Hyundai Department Store, and Happy Department Store, along with gifts. A joint sale involving 200 local small supermarkets will also take place.
To stimulate consumption in traditional markets, a digital gift certificate refund event is also planned. From the 17th of next month, 20% of the payment amount for digital Onnuri gift certificates will be refunded as digital gift certificates for two weeks.
Lee Dae-geon, the policy director for small businesses, said, "This year's festival has expanded the sales channels and products compared to last year to assist small businesses struggling due to economic downturns, and I hope everyone can enjoy reasonable shopping opportunities through various events."