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The internal e-commerce market is a battleground. In a market where there is no absolute power, they are distributing cheaper products and faster deliveries and risk bleeding. EBay Korea, which runs the first generation G Market e-commerce platform in this battlefield, is unique. Instead of rushing into early morning delivery, they are beefing up the “Smile Club” paid subscription system. This move draws more attention as it is time for WeMef and 11th to leave the paid subscription system.
‘Smile Club’, Korea’s first paid e-commerce membership system, started with 30,000 members in January 2017 and secured 2.7 million customers in November 2020. The main subscriber base is made up of people from aged between 30 and 40 with economic power and power to make consumer decisions within the family. In particular, for some customers, the purchase amount per person is doubled after joining the Smile Club. EBay Korea continues to grow despite the emergence of emerging powers like Naver thanks to the power of Smile Club. Last year it recorded KRW 1,954 trillion in sales and KRW 61.5 billion in operating profit, making it the only domestic industry of e-commerce to record a surplus for 15 consecutive years.
“It sounds cliché, but it is important to” know your customers very well. “Many companies believe that data alone can analyze customers, but the customer experience is not quantifiable. It is a treasure when pearls and pearls are also pierced. professionals have to find insights (insights) from the data “.
Kevin Lee, Vice President of eBay Korea, explains why Smile Club is so successful. The remark that “my customer really is” created a “Lock-in” service like Smile Delivery, Smile Pay and Smile Card that keeps members of the Smile Club.
Vice President Kevin Lee also conducted a “customer journey” in which approximately 160 customers logged and detailed each day for three months at the end of last year. Based on the insights gained from this, the ‘club stamp’ was released on the 1st of this month and is expected to be further improved in January next year.
Kevin Lee, Vice President of UX Design at major global companies such as GE, Visa, Whirlpool, eBay headquarters, PayPal, etc., is responsible for transforming Smile Service’s customer experience as head of the Product eXperience Center (PXC) of eBay Korea. . It is a conference held on November 24 at the Fallin Knowledge Platform
- EBay Korea has successfully created a captive membership called the Smile Club. Other trading companies are following and eventually give up. What are the different strengths of Smile Club?
- First of all, it will have a preventive effect. At first everyone said they were crazy. Korea is full of free, 1 + 1, but who will pay for membership. But I did and I blocked users. The benefits of the subscription provided by the Smile Card made with Hyundai Card and the easy payment of Smile Pay have increased the convenience of the customer. Then there was a cultural perception in Korea, such as “Is it okay to pay for a subscription?”, Creating momentum for the “prime mover”. Next year, the club plans to launch more differentiated services.
- He was responsible for product design at various innovative IT companies. How is commercial design different from other product designs?
- Since e-commerce is a B2C service, the “design complexity” is much greater. For the design of home appliances or wearable health devices, you may be able to convince other intermediate companies by managing production and logistics costs. Intuitive and simple. However, in e-commerce, if there are three customers, all three have different complexity. Make sure you know who your customers are. Businesses believe that analyzing transaction data can help quantify the customer experience and learn about it, but some of it may contain useless data. People need to find insights into the data. So this time eBay Korea worked on “Customer Journey”.
- ‘Customer Journey’, what kind of research did you do with which customer base?
- About 160 people, including G-Market’s loyal customers, G-Market’s general customers, G-Market’s employee customers, and other loyal customers of other companies, were asked to record their lifestyle for three months in a time series. From waking up in the morning to sleep, she recorded her daily routine, “drink water, go to work, work in the company, drink coffee” and write down the client’s feelings and thoughts at that time. Although commercial purchases are made within a smartphone app, the reason for making the purchase decision is because it is the “feel” of everyday life outside the phone. We wanted to capture that emotional moment.
- Isn’t it too long to do customer research for 3 months?
- In the industry you might say, “Why do you do it when you don’t have time?” If you are a fast follower, you can copy the first engine and get out fast. However, an organization that is 20 years old and has a loyal customer base like eBay Korea should be able to invest three months to get to know customers properly. You can’t do ‘Customer Journey’ every day, but you have to do it at least once before creating a great service to control yourself.
- We are preparing several more services next year, but first of all, “Club Stamp” is out on November 1st. In January next year, it plans to increase the number of partner companies to improve the service. After analyzing the “customer journey” and observing people on the subway on their way to work, more than half of them watched webtoons or videos on their phones. The others watched the news and the others traded. Looking at it, I thought, “Can trading be fun too?” In fact, commerce and entertainment are not compatible. Commerce is a place to buy and exit fast, not a place to be for fun. But “why can’t trading be fun?” Being able to ask the same fundamental questions. We believe that if we create fun elements in the Gmarket app and brand partners walk in there, we can “block” the lives of “our customers” in a more meaningful way. Just like when you go to a bar and stamp it, we try to offer customers a fun experience as a reward when they visit the app and increase customer engagement.
- Are you going to reinforce content that can be fun in commerce apps?
- The idea is to have customers routinely open Gmarket apps without a purchase purpose. Is it possible on the market? Why not? We try to offer our customers the “fun discoveries of the day” by giving them a mission to perform every day. Before going to work or falling asleep, “What mission are you on today?” Imagine and create a life pattern that connects to the app with the necessary time. Additionally, brands that match the tastes of customers identified in this process can be brought in as new partners and linked to purchases. Club Stamp is a new customer engagement platform.
- As trade flows to the fulfillment center now, can eBay Korea be understood as the keynote that it won’t be obsessed with morning delivery and fast delivery?
- Now, all logistics can never go to delivery early in the morning. The cost is not fair. It will be possible in about 20 years when the unmanned delivery service is fully operational. Then, at some point, early morning delivery isn’t “something else”. If so, can you really capture customers’ hearts with fast delivery? Of course, eBay Korea is also focusing on improving logistics for fast delivery. However, he said he would set up 200 warehouses and hire drivers and would not. As an open market, it will partner with good brands to connect with customers and focus on providing trustworthiness to customers in tracking and return rather than just quick delivery. To this end, the organizational culture has been reorganized over the past year and the strategic results created by the changed organization will be available from January next year.
- I have worked through global corporate headquarters, but what if there is something you can tell me about Korean organizational culture?
- The first thing I did when I came to eBay Korea was the organizational culture reform. By removing the manager’s rank and making it a horizontal structure, everyone communicated. In the war room, I started having a fierce argument with the staff and said, ‘Speak. It created an environment to “disagree and commit” after a decision was made. Above all, we have tried to create an environment where employees are not afraid to ask questions and give opinions. Our employees say, ‘If you ask Kevin, you’ll get homework. It is easy to give the correct answer. Then I can stretch my feet and sleep. I threw something. But I don’t like to go easy. When going strong, a light bulb in my head turns on “Ting Ting Ting”. Since he has been activated by his own thoughts, he never forgets it.
Haejin Lee, editor of Paulin [email protected]
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