57.2 pct of Korean Consumers Use Food Subscription Services

The most popular types of food subscription services were regular food delivery services like the ones offered by Coupang or Market Kurly. (image: Market Kurly)

SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent survey has revealed that almost 6 in 10 Korean consumers are taking delivery of food on a regular basis through a food subscription service.

According to an online survey conducted by the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. of 1,375 local consumers, 57.2 percent of the respondents said that they were currently using a food subscription service.

By age group, those in their 40s showed the highest usage rate at 60.2 percent, followed by people in their 30s at 59 percent, those in their 50s at 56 percent, those over 60 at 58.1 percent, and those younger than 20 at 49 percent.

Respondents in their 20s showed a relatively low usage rate of food subscription services compared to other types of subscription services (73.5 percent), including content, daily necessities, cosmetics, and home electronics.

In contrast, respondents in their 60s showed a relatively high usage rate of food subscription services compared to their usage rate of other subscription services (71 percent).

The most popular types of food subscription services were regular food delivery services like the ones offered by Coupang or Market Kurly (32.7 percent), followed by meal kits at 30.8 percent, lunch boxes at 21 percent and a farm produce packages at 19.8 percent.

Roughly two thirds of the food subscription service users picked ‘convenience’ as the service’s greatest strength, followed by 28.4 percent citing the cost savings and 21.9 percent who were happy that they didn’t have to worry about which products to select.

Among the users of food subscription services, the proportion of those whose monthly spending for the service averaged between 10,000-30,000 won (US$8.44-$25.33) accounted for the largest share at 33.5 percent.

For other types of subscription services, the largest share of the users (35.4 percent) reported monthly spending of less than 10,000 won.

Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)