With 10 million cumulative users and 24,000 stores, the platform is evolving into AI-based commerce.
From brand expansion to YouTube integration and 7-day direct delivery, we’ve expanded across the board.
Zigzag, a style commerce platform operated by Kakao Style, has proven its unrivaled growth in the domestic mobile fashion platform market by surpassing KRW 2 trillion in cumulative transaction amount, 10 million cumulative users, and over 24,000 participating stores in its 10th anniversary since its app launch.
ZigZag is evaluated to have established a unique market positioning through a hybrid commerce strategy that organically combines technology-based personalization, fast delivery, and premium selection.
ZigZag is attracting attention for its unparalleled growth in the domestic mobile fashion platform market.
Launched in 2015 with a transaction volume of 10 billion won, ZigZag achieved 2 trillion won in 2024, growing more than 200-fold in transaction volume in just 10 years. During the same period, total daily user usage also increased 20-fold, from approximately 10,000 hours to 200,000 hours. Since its launch as a mobile shopping hub connecting over 1,000 Dongdaemun-based shopping malls, ZigZag has steadily improved shopping convenience through AI-based personalization technology and advanced payment and delivery systems.
Today, it has established itself as a comprehensive commerce platform, offering over 9 million products, encompassing not only fashion but also beauty and lifestyle. Notably, it has attracted 1 million new subscribers in the past six months, demonstrating remarkable growth in both user acquisition and loyalty.
# Expanding the beauty category through offline contacts
This zigzag growth appears to be the result of a combination of product line expansion and customer experience enhancement strategies. One of these strategies is the full-scale expansion of the beauty category.
ZigZag is expanding its product line from its existing women’s apparel-focused platform to beauty and lifestyle, focusing on strengthening content-driven consumption trends and personalized shopping experiences.
The ‘Jikjack Beauty’ pop-up store opened with the theme of ‘BE-YOU-TIFUL (My Own Beauty)’
A symbolic example of this is the “ZigZag Beauty” pop-up store held in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, last April. Held at XYZ SEOUL, the three-day event, with the concept of “BE-YOU-TIFUL,” featured offline customized beauty services across 18 booths, including personal color testing, skin condition diagnosis, and sample scooping. Customers could link their diagnosis results to the ZigZag app to create an “online pouch,” adding the products to their cart and purchasing them immediately, thus achieving an omnichannel experience.
The event featured 17 leading Korean beauty brands, including Espoir, Etude, Dalba, Rainbow Mansion, and Ekmul. Experiential content, including a makeup touch-up event in collaboration with influencer Lamyuque, was also offered, resonating with MZ generation female customers. This milestone marks the company’s acceleration in enhancing its beauty commerce competitiveness, signaling the strengthening of its specialized beauty content and the advancement of its in-app curation system.
# Premium strategy with designer brands
Strategies to diversify customer bases and meet the demand for luxury goods are also being implemented in earnest. Zigzag is strengthening its premium selection of designer brands in the fashion sector and pursuing a customer-focused strategy based on brand competitiveness.
Zigzag is in the process of implementing a customer sophistication strategy based on brand competitiveness.
The company is expanding its brand-centric selection by strengthening its attraction of domestic and international designer brands, centered around its select shop “SELECTED.” Recently opened, high contemporary brand “Andersson Bell” has secured a global fan base with its sensuous genderless designs. To celebrate its opening, the brand ran a promotion offering discount coupons of up to 15% and a free market bag for customers spending over 300,000 won. Romantic chic women’s clothing brand “DEW E DEW E” also attracted customers by offering discount coupons of up to 20% and other discounts on popular items.
In addition, designer brands targeting the MZ generation, such as ‘LE ABONNE’, ‘Low Tide’, and ‘COCANCL’, are entering the market one after another, creating a three-dimensional selection structure that adds the differentiation of designer brands to the popularity centered around Soho Mall.
# Clicking on a product in the content will take you to the app… ‘Structure change’
Since last June, we have been the first domestic fashion platform to officially introduce the ‘YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program’, allowing viewers to click on a product within the content and be taken directly to the ZigZag app to make a purchase.
Zigzag’s content commerce strategy is also a key expansion strategy. Last June, Zigzag became the first domestic fashion platform to officially launch the “YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program,” allowing creators to directly tag Zigzag products in their shorts, videos, and live content. Viewers can then click on a product within the content to be taken directly to the Zigzag app and make a purchase.
This move symbolizes a structural shift from traditional search-based shopping to “discovery-based shopping.” Specifically, it implements a shopping flow tailored to the short-form video-based consumption habits of the 1020 generation, blurring the line between content viewing and product purchase.
ZigZag plans to showcase thousands of discounted products in conjunction with YouTube content during the “2025 Direct Jackpot Summer Black Friday” event, which begins on July 16th. This is expected to boost brand awareness and attract traffic for participating stores, while encouraging intuitive purchase conversions for consumers.
# Increased consumer satisfaction with 365-day, non-stop ‘7-day direct delivery’
Zigzag is also establishing a clear differentiation in its delivery competitiveness. Starting this year, it launched a “7-day direct delivery system” in earnest, enabling 365-day, 24/7 delivery, even on weekends and public holidays. This system has enabled it to establish a fulfillment network of unprecedented quality, even in the fashion commerce industry.
The “direct delivery” service, introduced in 2021, has continued to grow rapidly, responding to the growing demand for expedited delivery. Transaction volume has increased by 2,032% over the past year compared to 2021, and the number of participating stores has increased by 1,377% during the same period. Consequently, the range of products eligible for immediate delivery has expanded significantly, rapidly expanding the scope of direct delivery.
Customer satisfaction is also high. Direct delivery is particularly suitable for basic clothing and seasonal items, where immediacy is crucial, and is showing positive results in both conversion and repeat purchase rates.
Consumer Kim Anna (32) expressed her satisfaction, saying, “I ordered on Saturday morning and was surprised to receive it on Sunday evening. It was so convenient to be able to prepare clothes to wear before work.”
Kakao Style plans to further enhance the precision and scope of its direct delivery service by incorporating AI demand forecasting and automated logistics systems. Furthermore, by evolving its hyper-curation recommendation system based on analysis of purchasing patterns and content consumption history, it aims to deliver personalized product exposure and a real-time personalized shopping experience, further solidifying its competitive edge in the recommendation commerce market.
Shin A-rang, editor [email protected]