'Songpyeon by delivery': Chuseok orders for rice cakes surge 4.8 times on holiday

Songpyeon — the half-moon rice cakes that families once gathered to make together during the holidays — are now being ordered by delivery app. Last year's Chuseok saw delivery orders for the traditional treat surge nearly fivefold compared with a normal day, as more consumers turned to online food delivery to prepare their holiday tables instead of shopping and cooking.

Orders for songpyeon on Baemin, the delivery platform operated by Woowa Brothers, jumped 4.8 times on last year's Chuseok — Oct. 6, 2025 — compared with the same day of the previous week, according to Yonhap.

Other traditional holiday foods also saw sharp increases. Orders for assorted jeon rose 270% over the same period, while namul climbed 135%. Yakgwa and hangwa — traditional Korean confections — were up 44%, and braised galbi gained 39%. Demand was concentrated on Chuseok day itself rather than spread across the holiday period.

A notable trend was the high share of first-time customers. Of all completed Baemin orders on last year's Chuseok, 67% were placed at restaurants the customer had never ordered from before — 18 percentage points higher than the same day a week earlier. The pattern reflects consumers traveling to their hometowns and venturing outside their usual neighborhoods, as well as regular restaurants being closed for the holiday.

Ordering patterns also shifted from the norm. Last Chuseok, roughly 40 percent of the day's total orders came in between 8 and 11 a.m., as consumers turned to delivery apps early in the morning to prepare food for ancestral rites or an early lunch.

With this year's Chuseok holiday spanning just four days — shorter than last year's — the trend toward a "delivery holiday" is expected to intensify. "This year's Chuseok holiday is about half as long as last year's, so we expect even more people to order holiday food through the app or try restaurants they've never used before," a Baemin official said.

The holiday appetite extended well beyond traditional fare. Yogiyo, another delivery platform, forecast that demand for "sharing menus" — items such as chicken, pizza, braised dishes and stews suited for family gatherings — as well as alcohol and snacks would rise this Chuseok. Last year's Chuseok holiday bore that out: pizza and Western food orders on Yogiyo rose 21.8 percent compared with the previous week, burgers climbed 13.8 percent and chicken was up 13 percent. Alcohol orders increased 13.9 percent.

The post-meal dessert run was equally pronounced. Ice cream orders surged 90.1 percent and cafe latte orders rose 82.6 percent. The data points to a broadening consumer pattern of handling everything — from holiday dishes to dessert — through a single delivery app.