Moon-Suck Song is a Swedish e-commerce profile. As the founder of the agency Panagora, he has been active in the industry for a quarter of a century, and last year Ehandel reported on how he became an angel investor in the AI company Emfas.
But in an interview with Market, he now reveals an unexpected turn of events. After 25 years focusing on durable goods, he is entering the physical grocery retail market through the unmanned chain 24 Sju.
Behind the industry change lies a stark view of durable goods retail. After 25 years in the fashion and lifestyle segment, Moon-Suck Song believes that the business model has an inherent weakness – customers simply shop too infrequently, forcing e-commerce companies to constantly fight for every purchase with expensive marketing money.
In grocery retail, he instead sees the enormous strength of consumers' daily basic needs, where stable volumes roll in week after week for food, snacks and household items.
Understands why Ica makes money, he tells the site.
Building a network in Stockholm
The investment has begun with an unmanned store at Liljeholmskajen in Stockholm, and the plan is to scale up with an entire network of unmanned stores in expanding residential areas.
The move towards groceries is also evident in his private investments. Moon-Suck Song invested early in the snack brand Redhead, founded by Youtube personalities Mauri Hermundsson and Alexander Varga, even though he initially had no idea who the founder was.
Today, Redhead is expanding widely on store shelves and preparing to build its own chip factory.