SSG.com declared it would seek to lead the online grocery market by upgrading delivery, improving quality and expanding membership benefits.

Marking its 12th anniversary, SSG.com issued a customer declaration and said on March 4 it would aim to become South Korea's leading online grocery mall. It plans to boost competitiveness around three pillars: delivery, quality and membership, to take the lead in the online grocery market.

It will optimise delivery services to fit customers' daily patterns: SSG Delivery (scheduled date and time), Star Delivery (guaranteed arrival) and Baro Quick (instant delivery).

SSG.com will sharply expand the volume of weekly SSG Delivery processed at PP centres, picking and packing facilities at about 100 E-Mart stores nationwide. It aims to improve profitability through operational efficiency while strengthening the advantage of delivery at a designated date and time. It will also break down weekly delivery time slots into as many as 5 options depending on the region.

It also pledged to expand quick commerce. It will increase logistics hubs for Baro Quick, which delivers E-Mart products within about 1 hour within a 3 km radius of a store, to 90 locations within the second quarter. It plans to pre-empt fast-growing demand for instant delivery.

It will overhaul Star Delivery, its guaranteed-arrival service. In areas where weekly and dawn delivery are not operated, it plans to use CJ Logistics' nationwide logistics infrastructure to deliver ambient products and chilled goods such as agricultural, livestock and seafood items on the promised date. It also said the SSG Seven Club membership's fixed 7 percent rewards benefit will apply to Star Delivery in the same way as SSG Delivery.

In fresh food, it said it would strengthen its identity as an "online E-Mart".

SSG.com said it will apply E-Mart's fresh food management standards in the same way to guarantee quality and select products. It also operates a freshness guarantee programme that refunds or exchanges items unconditionally if customers are dissatisfied with freshness.

Its membership strategy focuses on helping households save money. SSG.com launched a basic SSG Seven Club plan in January, centred on fixed 7 percent rewards for purchases through SSG Delivery and Star Delivery. This month it will launch an SSG Seven Club Tving plan that includes the over-the-top video service Tving.

It also plans to run member-only special-price items on an ongoing basis across fresh and processed food, daily necessities, fashion and beauty, children's products, and home and electronics, to increase perceived benefits.

Choi Taek-won (최택원), chief executive of SSG.com, said, "We will focus on fundamental competitiveness to be reborn as the leading grocery platform," and added, "We will improve access to online grocery shopping with differentiated services."