CJ ENM’s CJ Onstyle bets big on live commerce for breakthrough

CJ Onstyle, the at-home TV shopping and e-commerce brand of South Korea’s content and commerce powerhouse CJ ENM Co., will go bolder with mobile live-stream shopping in hopes of escaping from e-commerce stagnation. On Thursday, CJ Onstyle introduced multiple new live-stream shopping shows on mobile devices in five categories – fashion, beauty, living, babies and children and new launches. The company has invited famous Korean celebrities, ranging from actors and actresses to singers, to host the new mobile live-selling shows, which will be on air starting next Monday. With the new shows, CJ Onstyle will focus more on delivering value to consumers’ shopping experiences and meeting their diverse shopping tastes, it said. “Consumers’ preferences are becoming more important in production selection than bang for their buck. That’s the current trend in the commerce market,” Jung Mi-jeong, vice president and chief marketing officer of CJ Onstyle, said at a press conference on the same day. “CJ Onstyle’s new programs will be produced to deliver new value to consumers to allow them to have new experiences.” The company pins high hopes on the new mobile live-stream programs amid a slowdown in the overall Korean e-commerce market, especially at-home TV shopping channels. TO OFFSET THE E-COMMERCE SLOWDOWN According to data from Statistics Korea and Labangba Data Lab, the Korean e-commerce market grew 10% in the first half of this year from the same period of last year. Over the same period, the mobile live commerce market jumped 27%. “I think the magic of blockbuster strategy will work,” Kim Ji-hyun, the head of Strategy and Investment at CJ ENM Commerce Division, said at the press conference. “The new programs are expected to be our signature content.”Under the blockbuster strategy, companies invest heavily in only a few products in hopes of a hit. CJ Onstyle needs a breakthrough for its business, which has stagnated in recent years. The company runs a TV home shopping channel, as well as mobile and data e-commerce businesses. Its mainstay at-home TV shopping unit has been struggling with rising fees for using channels leased to them by paid TV channel operators such as cable or satellite TV services. Worse yet, its viewership is on a steady decline. As a result, CJ Onstyle’s operating profit shrank to 69.3 billion won ($51.7 million) in 2023 from 179.0 billion won in 2020. Over the same period, its revenue also decreased 10% to 1.34 trillion won. While its overall sales dropped, its mobile live-stream shopping services have seen a rise in revenue. Revenue from its live shopping programs on mobile devices zoomed 81% in the first half of this year from the same period of last year. This is one of the reasons that CJ Onstyle has made big bets on the new mobile live commerce shows. By Hyun-jin Rararaland@hankyung.comSookyung Seo edited this article.