Hojung Food finds new footing on Temu, breaking free from holiday-season limits

Hojung Food, a traditional Korean confectionery maker with a 30-year history, is carving out a new path on global e-commerce platform Temu — using it to transform its holiday-dependent hangwa sweets into an everyday purchase.

Monthly orders on Temu have climbed from just five in the company's first month on the platform to around 400 a year later. Based in Damyang-gun, South Jeolla Province, Hojung Food operates two factories and produces more than 150 varieties of traditional foods, making it the country's largest hangwa manufacturer.

A key driver of the sales growth has been a nutrition bar — a reinterpretation of traditional hangwa as a meal supplement, sold in individual packaging. The product has worked in tandem with a broader small-pack strategy aimed at new customer segments. The share of small-pack products sold through Temu is now higher than through any of the company's other retail channels.

Conventional online shopping malls are built around "intent-driven" purchases, where consumers search for specific items — meaning hangwa searches outside the holiday season have historically been sparse. Temu, by contrast, operates as a "discovery" platform, surfacing products in the feeds of shoppers browsing for everyday goods, which the company says has driven repeat purchases.

"On Temu, customers stumble across our products while shopping for everyday items," said Yu Su-jin, a director at Hojung Food. "When a second order follows, it means the product has become part of their daily routine — not because a special occasion is coming up."

Support from a dedicated Temu account manager also contributed to the sales gains. The manager suggested popular search terms in the snack category that suited the nutrition bar, and incorporating those into the product listing raised its visibility in Temu's discovery feed. "The tips weren't generic advice — they were specific and immediately applicable," Yu said.

Other brands have also built repeat customers through Temu. Chefaechan, a brand specializing in banchan and ready-to-eat meals, has recorded a repurchase rate of about 23 percent on the platform. "Temu is a platform where consumers experience our products for the first time and then come back for more," said Park Woo-yeon, the brand's chief executive. Beauty brand Rokkiss has similarly observed a pattern of consumers discovering its cosmetics while browsing Temu and returning to buy again.