The number of users of SSG.com, which emerged as an alternative in the fresh food delivery market right after Coupang's massive personal information leak, has recently turned downward again. In the short term, it absorbed some of the so-called " 탈팡족," but assessments say it was difficult to fully replace Coupang's "Wow Membership"-level delivery experience and its price and benefit structure.
SSG.com will officially launch a new paid membership, "Sseuk Seven Club," on the 7th, putting front and center its discount, rewards, and over-the-top (OTT) bundle benefits, with a goal of locking in customers.
According to Mobile Index by data tech corporations IGAworks on the 6th, SSG.com's weekly active users (WAU) reached 1,194,957 in the fourth week of November last year (Nov. 24–30), when Coupang's personal information leak occurred. After that, SSG.com's WAU increased 28% (334,931) over two weeks to 1,285,916 in the first week of December (Dec. 1–7) and 1,529,888 in the second week of December (Dec. 8–14).
This was thanks to SSG.com temporarily absorbing part of the demand from the " 탈팡족." During the same period, Coupang's WAU fell about 1.8% (492,208), from 27,843,021 in the fourth week of November to 27,350,813 in the second week of December.
However, SSG.com's WAU declined to 1,366,802 in the third week of December and 1,158,442 in the fourth week of December, returning to levels before the Coupang data leak. It appears consumers who tried SSG.com temporarily did not settle on the platform and moved to competing platforms.
After Coupang's data leak, SSG.com moved aggressively to attract the " 탈팡족," strengthening free delivery benefits and running promotions for dormant customers. From the 12th to the 19th of last month, it lowered the free dawn delivery threshold from 40,000 won to 20,000 won for eight days and offered a free gift to customers in the Seoul metropolitan area who purchased 70,000 won or more with dawn delivery. For customers who had not purchased for more than three months, it provided a 10,000 won discount coupon when paying 40,000 won or more for dawn or daytime delivery items.
SSG.com also promoted the platform aggressively by providing two free delivery coupons per account for the quick commerce service "BaroQuick," usable on payments of 30,000 won or more from the 18th to the 24th of last month. BaroQuick delivers Emart store items such as food and daily necessities within roughly one hour to destinations within a 3-kilometer radius of the store.
Despite such aggressive promotions, the user count fell again, apparently because platform users found it hard to feel benefits on par with Coupang's "Wow Membership." According to a recent survey by market research firm Embrain Trend Monitor of 1,000 adults aged 19 to 69 nationwide, 55.3% of respondents said, "I think I will keep using Coupang because of convenience."
SSG.com is seeking a turnaround by rolling out the new paid membership "Sseuk Seven Club" on the 7th. Sseuk Seven Club highlights an intuitive benefit of earning 7% back in SSG Money on payments for "Sseuk Delivery (daytime, dawn, Traders)." The company says this is the industry's highest fixed earnings rate. The monthly subscription fee is set at 2,900 won.
In addition, Sseuk Seven Club will provide two 7% coupons and two 5% coupons each month, usable when purchasing items from Shinsegae Department Store Mall and Shinsegae Mall. Starting in March, it plans to launch a subscription option model in partnership with OTT "TVING."
Ahead of the membership launch, preliminary customer response is said to be solid. SSG.com ran a promotion last month granting a 3,000 won grocery credit to customers who applied for a "notification" for the new membership launch, and applicants surpassed 600,000.
Lee Myeong-geun, head of sales at SSG.com, said, "The new membership will accelerate grocery growth and customer acquisition and serve as a springboard to further expand partner sales channels," adding, "By combining differentiated membership benefits with platform reliability, we will establish ourselves as a unique platform where customers can buy with confidence."