SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A new joint venture between South Korea’s Shinsegae Group and China’s Alibaba International has begun operations with major year-end promotions, signaling the start of what many in the retail sector expect will be a reshaping of the country’s e-commerce landscape. Grand Opus Holdings, the JV formed by the two companies, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s e-commerce sector is undergoing a sharp consolidation, with a winner-takes-all structure emerging as Coupang and Naver entrench their dominance. Smaller players are collapsing or being forced into alliances, while global challengers from China accelerate their advance. The collapse of mid-tier platforms Tmon and Wemakeprice last year, which [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s antitrust regulator on Thursday conditionally approved a joint venture between Shinsegae Group’s Gmarket and Alibaba’s AliExpress Korea, clearing the way for a new challenger to disrupt a market long dominated by Coupang and Naver. The tie-up, structured as a 50:50 joint company under Grand Opus Holding, will [...]
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Roughly 40% of South Korea’s major online shopping platforms rely on proprietary algorithms to rank product reviews without disclosing the criteria behind those rankings, raising concerns about consumer trust and transparency, according to a new report by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. In a survey released Friday by the Seoul [...]
SEOUL, June 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced Wednesday that it will formalize and publicly disclose criteria for identifying online shopping platforms that receive frequent consumer complaints, in a bid to improve transparency and strengthen consumer protection. Under the proposed regulation — titled Rules on Disclosure of Online Retailers with [...]
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s leading e-commerce platforms are increasingly venturing into the offline space, launching a wave of pop-up stores to elevate brand visibility and draw new customers back to their digital platforms amid rising competition and shifting consumer habits. SSG.com, the e-commerce unit of retail giant Shinsegae Group, announced it will [...]
SEOUL, May 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping has become the dominant channel for purchasing home appliances in South Korea, outpacing all other major product categories in digital penetration, according to newly released government data. Figures from Statistics Korea’s national portal show that online transactions accounted for 53.7% of total retail sales in the home appliance [...]
SEOUL, March 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning to Costco Korea for violating e-commerce laws by requiring customers to visit physical stores to cancel certain membership types while allowing online sign-ups. The regulatory action, announced on March 24, specifically targeted Costco’s policy regarding its Executive memberships, which [...]
SEOUL, March 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Naver has officially entered South Korea’s e-commerce arena with a dedicated shopping app, sparking industry speculation about whether it can effectively challenge Coupang’s market leadership. The tech giant unveiled its Naver Plus Store app on March 12, marking its formal transition into an open market platform operator. While industry experts acknowledge [...]
SEOUL, March 11 (Korea Bizwire) — “Don’t suffer in silence anymore. Take revenge on those who have wronged you,” reads the product description for a straw doll on a popular South Korean e-commerce platform. These modern interpretations of traditional voodoo dolls, priced at around 10,000 won each, are being marketed as stress-relief tools for dealing with workplace [...]