Online Shops Meet Growing Demand for Product Leasing

GS Shop online shopping mall has set up a comprehensive product leasing service amid high consumer prices and the continuing recession. Customers pay monthly installments, and ownership is transferred to them at the end of the contract.

GS is the first online retailer to open a leasing section, a spokesman said Wednesday. Consumers can lease about 80 kinds of products, including refrigerators, washing machines, IT gadgets and cars, as well as water purifiers and bidets.

Installment payments cost about 30 percent more than lump sum payment, but an increasing number of consumers lease products because they do not have to cough up the whole price at once.

Some goods like water purifiers and bidets have been available for lease for a few years now, but the range has got much bigger and now includes furniture as well.

Woongjin Coway made mattresses available for lease last October, and E-Mart launched home appliance leasing services early this year.

"Many consumers complained that there was a limited choice of outlets [where they can lease products,] and that each outlet had its own complicated terms and conditions," said a GS Shop staffer. "We'll keep upgrading our products and services so that customers can choose and lease our products more easily."