Oasis Market, which finalized its acquisition of Tmon in June last year, still has not been able to resume Tmon's operations a year later. Oasis invested about 70 billion won to normalize Tmon and wrapped up legal procedures, but it has not cleared the hurdles of restoring the payment network and market trust. While Tmon's normalization is delayed, Oasis Market is accelerating efforts to strengthen its own platform competitiveness by expanding subscription memberships and nonfood categories.
According to the retail industry on the 23rd, the Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved Oasis Market's acquisition of Tmon by issuing a decision to confirm the rehabilitation plan on June 23 last year. Tmon then ended rehabilitation proceedings in August last year and exited court receivership.
Oasis Market pushed several times to restart Tmon's operations from the second half of last year, immediately after the acquisition. It also moved to recruit sellers by highlighting industry-low commission rates and a next-day settlement system after purchase confirmation. The plan was to broaden its scope from an existing fresh-food-centered business to a comprehensive e-commerce platform through Tmon.
However, the schedule to resume Tmon's operations was repeatedly delayed due to issues linking with payment gateways (PG) and card companies, as well as pushback from victims of unpaid settlements. Securing a card payment network is essential for an e-commerce platform, but distrust in the Tmon brand remains high after the large-scale unpaid settlement incident. As a result, even now, a year after the acquisition, Tmon has not been able to resume operations.
Currently, only an apology to partners is posted on Tmon's website. In the post, Tmon said, "We prepared with more than 10,000 partner companies and over 1 million products and set Sept. 10 last year as the opening date, but as complaints from victims concentrated through affiliated card companies and related agencies, we had no choice but to postpone the opening."
The funds Oasis has put into Tmon amount to about 70 billion won. In addition to the 11.6 billion won acquisition price for Tmon, Oasis invested 6.5 billion won to repay public-interest claims and retirement benefit provisions, and later carried out a paid-in capital increase of 50 billion won to normalize platform operations. However, with consumer-facing services not actually opening, the effects of the acquisition have yet to materialize.
The delay in normalizing Tmon is also weighing on performance. Oasis's revenue last year was 564.5 billion won, up 9.2% from a year earlier to a record high, but operating profit fell 14.7% to 19.1 billion won, and net profit dropped 36% to 14.4 billion won. It is believed that costs for marketing, advertising, and other areas increased during preparations to resume operations following TMON's acquisition.
Oasis Market is attempting to readjust its business strategy by changing Tmon's corporate name twice this year. The Tmon entity changed its name to "AGO" in January this year, then changed it again to "MAYOASIS" about two months later.
Amid this, Oasis is seeking a breakthrough by focusing on strengthening its own platform competitiveness. A prime example is the subscription membership service "Club Oasis," launched on the 17th. Club Oasis credits up to 20% of the purchase amount for general products and up to 30% for beauty products as points. The monthly subscription fee is 2,000 won, but new subscribers get the first six months free and receive points worth 12,000 won, and from the seventh month, the subscription fee is fully returned in points.
The new membership is showing early results. According to Oasis Market, the pace of new member inflows has increased more than tenfold since the launch of Club Oasis. As sign-ups surged in a short period, Oasis Market temporarily limited new members' Club Oasis subscription applications to 5,000 people per day to ensure service stability.
A retail industry official said, "Setting the accrual rate for beauty products particularly high among membership benefits appears to be an attempt by Oasis Market, which had focused on fresh food, to expand into nonfood categories," adding, "With Tmon's normalization delayed, the card Oasis can choose right now is ultimately to raise the competitiveness of its own platform."