Sikbom Introduces Fresh Vegetable Guarantee Amid Soaring Prices

"Sikbom," an open marketplace for food ingredients exclusively for restaurant business owners, is making comprehensive efforts to firmly establish customer trust in the quality of fresh vegetables. The core of this is the introduction of the 'Freshness Guarantee System'. This is an unconventional policy that offers a full refund or 100% compensation in coupons, without any conditions, if members are dissatisfied with the quality or freshness of the fresh vegetables they purchased. Compensation is made immediately without complex procedures, maximizing convenience for restaurant business owners. This system is a measure to resolve frequent quality complaints arising during the online food ingredient purchasing process and to increase the reliability of online purchases, which restaurant business owners cannot verify with their own eyes. Indeed, in the largest online community for self-employed individuals, stress due to quality issues such as the delivery of spoiled vegetables has been consistently raised, and Sikbom empathized with the need to build such trust through discussions with its vendor members. Fresh vegetables, which currently account for 16% of Sikbom's sales, include essential items for the restaurant industry such as onions, garlic, green onions, and cabbage, where freshness is a critical factor directly linked to business success or failure. Therefore, the 'Freshness Guarantee System' carries strategic significance in strengthening Sikbom's core competitiveness. Additionally, Sikbom is also conducting a 'Special Offer Event' to supply key vegetables at prices lower than market rates for restaurant business owners struggling with recently soaring vegetable prices, thereby actively reducing their burden. According to Sikbom's own research, prices of some vegetables, including radish, cabbage, water celery (minari), and napa cabbage, have surged by 30-120% over the past year. Thanks to these efforts, Sikbom's fresh vegetable sales grew by an impressive 4.3 times, from 560.6 million won in February last year to 2.44078 billion won in February this year. The establishment of a system capable of supplying a diverse range of high-quality agricultural products, with not only existing major distributors like CJ Freshway, Daesang Corporation, and Dongwon Home Food but also Nonghyup Public Auction Market joining, is analyzed as the driving force behind this explosive growth. Proactive marketing and positive word-of-mouth among users have also significantly contributed to this growth. A Sikbom official emphasized, "The core of the Freshness Guarantee System goes beyond simply compensating if products are not fresh; it's about building absolute trust that buyers can always receive fresh and safe products from Sikbom, even without physically checking them," and expressed the ambition to create an environment where restaurant business owners can purchase ingredients with peace of mind.