As more foreign tourists visit South Korea, retailers from Olive Young, Daiso and Musinsa to department stores and convenience stores are all reaping the benefits. It is evidence of how much demand for Korean goods has grown among foreign consumers. But is there an easy way for foreigners who want to buy Korean products at home, without traveling to Korea? It is possible where Korean retailers have set up shop or where Korean grocery stores operate, but in many countries across Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Korean goods are hard to obtain directly.
James Chang, chief executive of Gmarket, is targeting that gap. "Even when foreigners learn from social media content that a certain Korean product is trending, there is nowhere to buy it," the CEO said. "We want foreigners interested in Korea to be able to buy Korean products through Gmarket."
Chang said demand for Korean products keeps expanding on the popularity of K-content, but supply is not keeping pace. "In the past, Southeast Asian consumers would see a scene in a Korean drama where someone eats instant noodles and simply want to try Korean ramyeon. Now they don't just want ramyeon — they want to cook it in a yellow aluminum pot the way Koreans do," the CEO said. "They want to experience Korean culture itself, but everyday Korean items like aluminum pots or soju glasses are not easy to find locally." The same goes for K-fashion. Because Korean brands have not entered those markets and there are few places selling them, what local consumers buy is Korean-style clothing rather than products from Korean brands, the CEO explained.
During the interview, the CEO pulled out a mobile phone and opened Lazada's Singapore app. Inside was a "Gmarket Korea" storefront. It is a function that lets goods listed on Gmarket by Korean sellers be sold to Singaporean consumers through Lazada. "Singaporean consumers can now buy Korean products, and at the same time Korean sellers can sell not only at home but also in overseas markets through Gmarket," the CEO said. For sellers, being able to secure a cross-border retail market through Gmarket can serve as an incentive to choose the platform as a sales channel.
Transaction volume in the cross-border retail business Gmarket launched last year more than doubled in the first half of this year from the second half of last year. About 17,000 sellers are currently selling 30 million products into Southeast Asian markets. "Sometimes the response and the sales are enough to surprise the sellers themselves," the CEO said.
Chang plans to widen those overseas channels. "We will expand our sales routes to China's Alibaba platform and continue to build up the Gmarket global app," the CEO said. The company also plans to broaden its geographic reach, with a roadmap to enter South Asia and Southern Europe this fiscal year and the Americas and the Middle East next year.
"I want us to become the e-commerce platform that represents Korea overseas," the CEO said. "One of the important roles we can play in this market is making it easy for customers who need Korean products to access them through Gmarket."
