South Korean Consumers Give Top Marks to Dawn Delivery, Lowest to Wedding Services (Image supported by ChatGPT)
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean consumers ranked the dawn delivery market as the most consumer-friendly, while wedding services received the lowest score in a nationwide survey released Tuesday by the Korea Consumer Agency.
The findings are part of the agency’s “2024 Consumer Market Evaluation Index,” which assesses how consumer-oriented various markets are across the country. The annual evaluation surveyed 40,000 people—1,000 per market—on four key factors: trust, options, price fairness, and dissatisfaction or harm.
On a 100-point scale, the overall consumer orientation averaged 65.7. Dawn delivery services topped the list with 71.8 points, followed by health supplements (70.3), household chemical products (70.2), general hospital care (69.7), and airline services (69.7). The dawn delivery market led in both trust and price fairness among the 40 sectors evaluated.
Conversely, the bottom five markets were dominated by service sectors: wedding services (50.4), school uniforms (54.8), home repair and interior services (59.4), veterinary clinics (61.9), and postpartum care centers (62.5).
Wedding services ranked lowest across all evaluation categories, with price fairness receiving the worst marks. Notably, 85.4% of consumers said price information was difficult to find, 83.2% reported unexpected additional charges, and 78.1% said they were encouraged to pay in cash.
South Korean Consumers Give Top Marks to Dawn Delivery, Lowest to Wedding Services (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The school uniform sector scored particularly low on choice, with actual prices averaging 36.4% higher than expected costs. Nearly half of the respondents (44.6%) blamed monopolistic or oligopolistic supply structures for the price hike.
Consumers criticized home repair and interior services for opaque pricing, which hindered comparison shopping. Veterinary services also fared poorly on price fairness, with actual payments averaging 86.8% higher than expected. Postnatal care services suffered from both low accessibility and difficulty in comparing offerings.
“Four of the five lowest-ranked markets were in the service industry, highlighting a generally lower level of consumer orientation in that sector,” the agency noted. “Particularly in wedding and veterinary services, many consumers felt that the prices offered were unreasonable.”
The Korea Consumer Agency plans to publish the full results on its website and share them with relevant government ministries to support regulatory improvements. A separate in-depth study on the wedding service market—the lowest-ranked category—is also being planned to develop concrete policy recommendations.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
