On December 5, 2023, a one-hour presentation was given on the topic of 'Building and operating our own mall for global exports' at the 'Spreading Wings for Exports, Overseas Expansion Seminar' hosted by the SBA International Distribution Center.

Many of the positions were filled by representatives who had some domestic sales experience and were in the early stages of overseas expansion or planning to expand overseas. So, rather than being a typical agency, we focused on the perspective of 300cbt, which knows the pain points of sellers better than anyone else through direct overseas sales experience, and gave a presentation centered on cases, and many people responded positively.

The presentation started with a story about the things everyone considers when considering overseas sales. We largely shared information about the marketplace, online store builder, Korean store builder, and Shopify platform.

1. Marketplace

The marketplace represented by Amazon is the most easily accessible method of overseas sales. The most important purchase conversion rate in e-commerce is usually around 2-3%, but Amazon has an overwhelmingly high purchase conversion rate of up to 14-17% for Prime members. However, Amazon also has limitations that all marketplaces have.

1) Product sales formats are limited.

2) Since customer and traffic data is not provided, independent marketing is not possible.

3) In the case of reselling, branding is not possible due to endless price competition.

4) Due to the long settlement cycle, you may experience difficulties in distributing funds.

2. Online store builder

Online store builders are further divided into three categories. Based on each characteristic, it can be divided into three categories: High Level, Install, and SaaS.

1) High Level

Since the high level method represented by Magento allows for back-end development, almost any desired function can be implemented. However, because of this, a dedicated person who can take charge of development knowledge, version updates, bugs, etc. is absolutely necessary.

2) Install

The Install method, represented by WordPress WooCommerce, allows server management, so API integration is relatively free. However, as a result, dedicated personnel who can take care of traffic issues, security issues, etc. will be needed.

3) SaaS

The SaaS (Software as a Service) method, represented by Shopify, does not require back-end development or server management and allows you to focus only on operations and sales. It is possible to operate the overall store with a minimum amount of manpower, even without development and design staff.

3. Korean online store builder issue

The Korean online store builder method represented by Cafe24 is strictly Korean, and since more than 90% of its customers are Korean, there are many limitations in building a global store.

In the past, due to legal issues, most Korean targets were built with Cafe24, and overseas targets were built with Shopify. However, as the legal issue was resolved in September 2023, it became possible to target domestic and overseas markets with a single store.

In addition, we shared in detail basic information about the Shopify platform, an explanation of the Shopify theme and app ecosystem, and payment, delivery, etc. that must be considered when building a store with Shopify. In fact, all the questions asked after the presentation were about payment and delivery. I thought this was the part that gave me the most trouble and was the most difficult to solve, so I recommended payment and delivery that can be set up as a Korean business.