This file photo, taken Oct. 6, 2020, shows people shopping for vegetables at a discount store in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Customer satisfaction guarantees offering full refunds are spreading among South Korean retail industry.
Based on judgment that an aggressive refund policy could contribute to attracting more customers, the nation’s major retailers are actively introducing policies guaranteeing satisfaction and promising to offer full refunds to dissatisfied customers.
South Korean hypermarket chain operator Homeplus Co. launched the ‘best taste campaign’ for all fresh food starting in January.
The campaign is a beefed-up version of the ‘fresh aftersales service system’ that was designed to ensure full refunds for customers who are not satisfied with the quality of fresh foods.
The fresh aftersales service system was introduced in 2018 for the first time among the nation’s major discount stores.
Homeplus is not alone. Since October, major e-commerce platform WeMakePrice has been running a 100 percent refund program that enables customers to get a full refund if they are not satisfied with the quality of premium agro-fishery products.
From the perspective of a business, the 100 percent refund policy could be burdensome since it generates extra costs, including the logistics cost for handling refunded items.
There have also been some cases where dishonest customers gained illegitimate profits by abusing the refund policy.
Nonetheless, retailers are sticking to such policies since the ratio of customers who actually request refunds among total consumers is quite low at less than 1 percent.
After Homeplus introduced its refund policy in 2018, the refund rate has remained low at less than 0.01 percent.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
