To boost the sales of small businesses struggling to stay afloat, Seoul city officials announced on December 1 that they will be starting a trial run of the ‘Market Analysis System of Our Neighborhood’ (golmok.seoul.go.kr). (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec.2 (Korea Bizwire) – After analyzing 43 categories of small businesses such as restaurants and both wholesalers and retailers, the Seoul Metropolitan Government reported that their 10 year survival rate was only 19.9 percent.
To boost the sales of small businesses struggling to stay afloat, Seoul city officials announced on December 1 that they will be starting a trial run of the ‘Market Analysis System of Our Neighborhood’ (golmok.seoul.go.kr).
The service will provide an analysis of data related to 1,800 local business areas, providing small businesses with information about the changes in nearby commercial districts, and the degree of risk in starting a business in a certain area.
The owners-to-be will be able to predict their success using the ‘Market Traffic Light’. Based on market data, the Market Traffic Light evaluates the degree of risk, showing information on closure rates, average closure period, and the rate of change in the number of stores open in the area.
Using the ‘Searching the Perfect Market’ menu, owners-to-be can browse through reports on the region they are interested in. Information about average sales per store, average floating population per day, survival rate and density index are provided in detail.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government developed the system based on 200 billion big data records. Public institutions provided licensing records from businesses, and Shinhan Card, BC Card, and the Korea Appraisal Board provided data related to sales and consumption.
According to the data, only two out of 10 small businesses that opened shop in 2004 survived after 10 years.
The possibility of small local businesses surviving after 10 years was 18.4 percent, which was lower than the survival rate of businesses in commercial areas dense with offices and shopping arcades.
The data also revealed that small local businesses were less likely to survive compared to franchise stores. The likelihood of a small local business surviving for three years was 58.4 percent, while 73.0 percent of franchise stores survived the same period.
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
