Since COVID-19, people have changed to a life of not meeting other people. All this is quite possibly accelerating the Untact period. The Untact period means that all daily activities are now non-face-to-face events to minimize direct contact between people. Accordingly, people’s consumption trends have also changed radically from before. Especially, this has led people to have simpler and more convenient consumption habits than before. Previously, people thought that they should visit the supermarket when purchasing food supplies, but now online grocery shopping is the fashion.
  If so, why did online grocery options appear? Online grocery stores have made it easy to provide service for working couples or those who can't go shopping. Therefore, this service offers to deliver food and related items right to their front doors if they order it on the internet. In addition, unlike the well-known internet shopping malls that deliver items that are not readily available in local supermarkets, such as clothes and goods, the online grocery delivers food products that are readily available such as fresh food and side dishes. However, it did not initially get any attention because it took so long to deliver that the customer did not receive fresh items. However, as people’s social interest in online grocery stores is on the increase, many internet sites, that manage online grocery purchases, are now trying to overcome this problem by introducing delivery services where items ordered the previous night is delivered at dawn.
  The Online grocery service originally targeted busy people, but now everyone who participates in the social distance movement has become part of the main customer base for the service. You So-ae, Kumoh national institute of technology Department of Chemical Engineering, said “I usually prefer to go directly to a supermarket rather than doing online shopping, but I recently used the online grocery service for the first time as part of this social distance campaign. The best thing was the delivery service where items ordered the previous night is delivered at dawn the next day, because this service ensures the delivery of fresh food.” Also, according to the Online Shopping Trends, released by Statistics Korea in September, there was a sharp increase in the delivery of food products(44.4%) and agricultural, livestock and fisheries(71.4%), due to increased online grocery transactions which went up 49.8% from a year ago. This means that people are more interested in online shopping service than last year and prefer to use the service.
  Because of the prolonged social distancing movement, most people preparing for the holidays are interested in non-face-to-face shopping even during Chuseok, the most recent holiday. Also, while most delivery companies were closed during the holidays, online grocery malls with some of their own delivery systems, provided delivery services during the holidays. According to an analysis of sales of major product groups during the 10 days before Chuseok, “G-market and Auction”, which have separately managed online grocery malls’, overall sales of fresh food increased 19%. In particular, livestock products such as beef (33%) and pork (44 %) have become popular. Overall sales of fruits, including apples (54%) and grapes (11.5%), increased 21%. In addition, the number of items prepared for memorial service table such as seafood (40%), mushrooms (30%) and vegetables (20%) has also increased. Thus, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the number of households shopping online for the memorial service table or holiday foods has increased compared to before, indicating that the online grocery service is gradually permeating our lives.
  As online shopping gradually spreads, customers who had previously shopped in traditional markets are now using online grocery stores. For this reason, the demand for traditional markets have been significantly reduced. This has caused the close of many traditional markets. Thus, those who prefer traditional market food also miss the food and ingredients with the peculiar taste of the traditional market. This is why Seoul’s traditional market and Naver have created a traditional market shopping service, which allows customers to easily purchase side dishes, snacks, vegetables and fruits from traditional markets at home. This service, unlike the online grocery service, delivers side dishes and foods that can only be bought in the traditional market within two hours of the day, to allow customers to eat fresher and warmer food.
  Choi Tea-hoon, who currently lives in Seoul and has experience in traditional market shopping service said, “Online grocery purchases was delivered the next morning, but traditional market items were dropped off on the same day. Also, I was very happy to receive and eat food and ingredients that contain the peculiar taste of traditional markets without having to go there directly.”
About the prospect of Online grocery service, Yoo Hyun-jung, a consumer studies professor at CBNU, said, “Online grocery shopping is a mega-trend that has been steadily emerging in the macroscopic trend. This was accelerated by COVID-19. Thus, people created a situation to adapt to the rapid change in this untact environment. Nevertheless, humans are so adaptable that they seem to be getting accustomed to living with COVID-19. Also, the unexpected advantages of the uncomfortable lifestyle are also found, and the lifestyle could change to more comfortable methods during that time. If COVID-19 is completely over, people may desire to go offline, because they want that in their untact life. However, it will not easily be reverted for those who are already accustomed to the convenience brought by online grocery shopping.”

By Kang Min-ji
 mj41@cbnu.ac.kr