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Ahead of the peak kimchi-making season (gimjang), the retail industry is expanding convenient product lineups to cater to the rise of 1-to-2-person small households and the trend toward streamlined kimchi preparation. While an increasing number of consumers are opting to buy pre-made packaged kimchi, the traditional ritual of making kimchi at home is also evolving into a more streamlined, "make-only-what-you-need" process.

According to the industry on the 30th, Lotte Mart and Lotte Super have increased their volume of salted napa cabbage by 20% compared to last year and introduced the "Haenam Salted Napa Cabbage Convenience Kit" targeted at small households. This kit consists of a 6.5kg package containing 5kg of salted cabbage and 1.5kg of kimchi seasoning. Consumers can finish making kimchi simply by tossing the cabbage with the seasoning, requiring no additional ingredients.

E-Mart launched its "Altari Radish Kimchi Kit" for the first time this year, consisting of 3kg of salted young radishes and 1kg of seasoning. Traditional kimchi kits typically consist of 7kg of salted cabbage and 3kg of seasoning. This new offering targets consumers who want to enjoy small quantities of various types of kimchi. Unlike general salted cabbage, which is typically sold in 20kg units, these kimchi kits are packaged in small capacities ranging from 3 to 7kg, reflecting consumer demand to make kimchi effortlessly and only in the amounts they intend to eat.

To accommodate diverse personal tastes, the choices of seasonings have also been expanded. Lotte Mart offers both Jeolla-style and Gyeongsang-style kimchi seasonings, while E-Mart separately sells central-region and southern-region styles to cater to regional palates.

The high demand for convenient kimchi products is evident in sales performance. At E-Mart, sales of all-in-one kimchi kits—which bundle salted cabbage and seasoning together—spiked by 109.5% year-on-year from the 27th of last month to the 26th of this month. Over the same period, sales of standalone salted cabbage and kimchi seasoning rose by 5% and 27.4%, respectively.

These changes align with shifts in actual kimchi-making practices. According to the Korea Rural Economic Institute, the percentage of households that made kimchi last year decreased by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year, whereas the proportion of households purchasing commercial packaged kimchi increased by 3 percentage points. Furthermore, even among those who make kimchi, there is a clear tendency to buy pre-salted cabbage rather than salting it from scratch. Among respondents, 58.9% stated they buy pre-salted cabbage for gimjang, making it the majority choice. The primary reasons for using pre-salted cabbage were "because the salting process is cumbersome" (55.8%) followed by "it saves time in making kimchi" (32.5%).

The packaged kimchi market is also maintaining a steady growth trajectory. Lotte Mart's packaged kimchi sales through September of this year increased by 5% compared to the same period last year. At E-Mart, sales of small-packaged kimchi weighing 1kg or less grew by 5.4% over the same period.

An industry official stated, "While an increasing number of consumers are skipping gimjang altogether, there is also a rising demand among those who do make it at home to minimize time and effort. We expect to see an expansion of products tailored to consumers' lifestyles, ranging from small-capacity kimchi kits to various types of packaged kimchi."

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