Rate of Increase and Rate of Change of Sales by major Items of Korean Hypermarkets
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Choi Soo Ho 
Published: December 2024

In this study, we collected data on the increase/decrease rate compared to the same month of the previous year in 「Hypermart Sales Trend(by Items)」 in the National Statistical Portal of the National Statistical Office. For the analysis period, monthly data were used from January 2008 to August 2020. The main items were Home Appliance Culture, Clothing, Family Life, Sports, Sundries and Food. We looked for volatility and synchronization phenomenon of each item.
In the Q-Q plot analysis, food and household life showed a temporary surge, while clothing and miscellaneous goods showed a temporary sharp decline. In the Box-Box Plot analysis, clothing and miscellaneous goods showed strong RBIs(o,✴) mainly at the bottom, but family life and foods mainly showed strong RBIs(o,✴) at the top. In Hodrick-Prescott Filter, the recent trend of total sales is showing a modest downtrend below 0%, so the decline is expected to continue for the time being. In the impact analysis, the total sales responded largely to each item. In particular, the shock response is relatively larger in total sales to food and total sales to family life.
In the analysis of the rate of change, recently, clothing and sundries showed a large decline, but food showed a rather rising rate. The reason is judged to be the effect of Corona 19. In the distribution chart, the rate of change of clothing and sundries is relatively wide. However, home appliance culture and family life show relatively stable volatility due to the narrow and high frequency of change. In the scatter analysis, food and family life showed a very high level of coordination with respect to total sales. On the other hand, home appliance culture and sports show a relatively low level of synchronization.
A hypermarket is a very large offline retail store that sells all items necessary for daily life such as clothes, groceries, household goods and home appliances at low prices. In this study, the trend of the fluctuation rate of sales was examined for major domestic Hypermarkets, eMart, Homeplus and Lotte Mart. As of August 2020, sales per store were KRW 5.66 billion, the total number of stores was 405, and the purchase price per person was KRW 53,659. Comparing the growth rate of sales in August 2019 and August 2020, it was found that offline decreased by 2.4% and online increased by 20.1%. The number of hypermarket stores (as of 2019) is 158 E-Mart, 140 Homeplus, 124 Lotte Mart, 16 Costco, and 14 Mega Mart.
It was found that medium-sized supermarkets, not traditional markets, benefited from Hypermarket regulations. After the regulation of opening hypermarkets in 2010 and mandatory closures in 2012, consumers have moved from hypermarkets to midsize supermarkets and online shopping malls. It is estimated that there are 60,000 medium-sized supermarkets nationwide, and they sell various ingredients at low prices. Many self-employed and general consumers are looking for it, and it is mainly growing in traditional markets or around apartment complexes. In each region, there are Oneplus Smart, Saegero Mart, Woori Mart, Trial Korea, Trial Mart, and Trabox.
In the average of the descriptive statistics, food was positive(+), while clothing and sundries, sports, family life and home appliance culture were negative(-). Also, in skewness, clothing and sundries showed a large drop in negative(-), but food showed a large increase in positive(+). Correlation analysis shows a high level of relationship for each item to total sales. On the other hand, sports and food showed the lowest correlation, showing contradictory appearances caused by Corona 19. As a result of the regression analysis, the coefficient was high in food, but relatively low in clothing and sports. In the regression analysis, all items except sundries were statistically significant.