Economic Review | Woori Card’s ‘Card-ui-Jeongseok’ Surges — 500,000 Issued in Three Months
An article covering Woori Card's 'Card-ui-Jeongseok POINT' surpassing 500,000 cards issued three months after launch, along with the background behind the so-called 'Jung Won-jae Card' — which President Jung Won-jae personally shaped by recruiting Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung — and Woori Card's turnaround story.
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[Economic Review = Reporter Jang Young-sung] Woori Card announced on the 29th that 'Card-ui-Jeongseok POINT,' unveiled last April, surpassed 500,000 cards issued three months after launch.
Woori Card's flagship product 'Card-ui-Jeongseok POINT' passed 300,000 in two months and has now topped 500,000 in three. A Woori Card representative emphasized, "This is an extremely record-setting issuance pace compared to other cards."
'Card-ui-Jeongseok POINT' is analyzed to owe its popularity to its focus on the point-accrual rate, which raised how much value consumers could get from their points. The base accrual rate provided across all categories is 0.8%, and once the customer's spending in the previous month reaches 300,000 won, there is no cap on point accrual.
Additional accrual is available in ten daily-life categories: 5% for public transit and EV charging, 3% for coffee and movies, and 1% for department stores, large discount stores, and online shopping.
Paying with this card through simple-payment services such as Naver Pay or Kakao Pay earns an additional 3% accrual.
Riding the popularity of 'Card-ui-Jeongseok POINT,' Woori Card simultaneously launched 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Discount' and 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Shopping' on the 25th. 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Discount' focuses on discount rates, offering 0.7% off at all domestic affiliated merchants regardless of the prior month's spending. 'Card-ui-Jeongseok Shopping' offers a 10% discount at seven major offline shopping categories and all online shopping when the prior month's spending reaches 300,000 won or more, plus an additional 5% for registering with a simple-payment service.
The 'Jung Won-jae Card'?
Every detail of the Card-ui-Jeongseok series, from the lettering to the colors, passed through the hands of Woori Card President Jung Won-jae. That's why, in the card industry, it's known as the 'Jung Won-jae Card.' It was President Jung who personally recruited Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung, and it was President Jung's idea to cut a notch in the upper right of the card so it could be easily pulled from a wallet. He was so focused on the design that he had the factory-made prototype revised more than twenty times.
President Jung's meticulousness has paid off in results. A genuine hit product has emerged after a long dry spell in the struggling card industry. In a survey of 8,000 Woori Bank branch employees earlier this month, 71% answered that the product was 'good.'
As recently as last year, Woori Card was in crisis. Its market share, 9.5% at the end of 2016, had dropped sharply to 8.7% by the end of last year, and its transaction volume had fallen by more than 2 trillion won. But President Jung, known as a 'master of sales,' has focused on turning that mood around. Having joined Hanil Bank in 1977, he spent 30 years at Woori Bank in front-line sales roles, including branch manager and head of sales headquarters.
President Jung set a goal of issuing 2 million new cards across all products this year. Woori Card is optimistic that this second series, showing momentum on par with its predecessor, could make 2 million cards achievable through the Card-ui-Jeongseok series alone.