Homeplus offering customized services to one-person households

At a time when more than 40 percent of Korean homes are single households, the country’s retail giant Homeplus is going all-out to offer tailored services to its customers.

The Seoul-based discount chain said on March 21 that it had employed a variety of tools to meet new demands from the mounting number of one-person households.

For example, Homeplus launched many smaller packaged items like vegetables, fruit, meat, and ready-made meals for those who live alone.

In addition, the outfit has provided the so-called quick-commerce services, a type of e-commerce loved by end customers thanks to quick deliveries.

When shoppers are located less than 2 kilometers or 2.5 kilometers from 250-plus Homeplus Express stores across the country, they can receive what they order online in around an hour at home.

During the latest fiscal year of Homeplus, which spanned between March 2023 and February 2024, the firm saw the sales of its small-amount meat products, kimchi, and other side dishes through the quick-commerce services more than double from a year before.

Sales of all other products in small amounts also jumped year-on-year, according to the corporation.

Homeplus said that such stellar performances were possible thanks to the renewal of its logistics system and the upgrade of its mobile application.

Homeplus introduced the quick commerce system in early 2021. After the next three years, the services chalked up 84 percent growth annually on average year-on-year.

Homeplus said that the company would expand the quick commerce department in line with the fast increase of one-person households.

“Smaller packaged products with good quality and our customized quick commerce services work together to meet the needs of one-person households,” Homeplus Online Marketing Director Cho Hye-young said.

“Going forward, we will continue to beef up the quick commerce services.”

According to Statistics Korea, 9.98 million Koreans were living alone as of the end of last month, accounting for 41 percent of the overall households.

And the number of one-person households is expected to top the 10 million mark in the near future.