Crashing Wave
The Korea International Trade Association announced on Oct. 26 that three Chinese online shopping malls – Suning.com, Tmall.com, and JD.com – recently opened Korean product websites. The three shopping malls account for 80 percent of the Chinese online shopping mall market.
Tmall.com, the largest one of the three, opened its Korean product website in May, and Korean cosmetics, clothes, food, consumer electronics, and baby products are gaining popularity there these days. JD.com, which is the second-largest, launched its sub-website two months earlier, and has focused on the marketing of similar products. The Korean product mall on Suning.com was launched in May as well, and Gome Electrical Appliances is also preparing to open a similar website.
This trend is to win over Chinese consumers preferring foreign shopping websites. The number of such customers increased from 20 million to 24 million between 2014 and this year, and is estimated to reach 36 million until 2018.
In the meantime, the association opened Kmall24 on Amazon Japan so that more diverse Korean products can become directly available in Japan. Amazon Japan was put into service in 2000, and it is currently the second-largest online shopping mall in Japan behind Rakuten.
Kmall24 products have been put on eBay since the first day of this month as well, so products manufactured by small Korean firms can meet customers around the world. At present, about 201 products are available there, ranging from accessories and daily supplies to baby goods.