Article at a Glance

How was “Grip,” a dedicated live commerce platform that grew rapidly on the back of the contactless consumption boom in 2020, able to identify a market opportunity before the COVID-19 pandemic and gain a first-mover advantage ahead of big tech companies and major retailers?

1. It explored ways to create the most convenient video commerce experience for end users without following industry conventions. After observing seller and consumer behavior, it created lock-in for both groups on the platform.

2. Based on the clear business philosophy of “Everyone can sell,” it gave small business owners autonomy over their broadcasts and lowered barriers to entry. It helped the market learn about live commerce.

3. It focused on the value of a strong tie and cultivated “micro-influencers” who felt like the older sister or brother next door. As it evolved into a fandom community where people shared tastes and interests, it naturally secured loyal customers and segmented its customer base.

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“Live commerce, why would anyone use that? Can’t you just sell products on YouTube and Instagram?”

In February 2019, when Grip CEO Kim Han-na (41) launched Korea’s first dedicated “live commerce”1 1Live commerce is a new concept that combines real-time streaming video with e-commerce and is considered capable of providing an online service similar to the face-to-face experience offered offline. 닫기 platform for buying and selling products through mobile live broadcasts, the market response was lukewarm. There were many days when not a single response came back even after she sent about 100 emails and DMs (direct messages) a day to manufacturers selling products online. With YouTube and Instagram already emerging as powerful “shopping platforms” that directly connected sellers and consumers, merchants had little reason to respond to requests to join an unheard-of app. Even explaining the strengths of live commerce, which allowed sellers to communicate with customers in real time as if on a video call and enabled immediate ordering and payment, was not enough to attract busy small business owners.

Over about 6 months, CEO Kim Han-na traveled from place to place with one intern and secured only 49 sellers. Whenever a company happened to respond, she immediately took a train to visit it, no matter how remote the location, but often returned empty-handed. Yet in just 2 years, Grip’s position changed completely from the difficult start it had made. By opening new sales channels and providing relief to offline small business owners whose sales had plummeted because of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Grip emerged at the forefront of the online contactless trend. As a result of enthusiastic support spread through word of mouth among small business owners throughout 2020, the number of businesses on Grip surged to about 10,000 as of February 2021. Grip’s transaction volume surpassed 24.3 billion won in 2020, and its monthly transaction volume jumped about 20-fold year over year. More than 100 sellers a day were requesting to join the platform.

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