2018 marks almost 10 years since the launch of the eBay Korea CBT team in 2010, followed by the entry of Amazon Korea and other overseas marketplaces, and the start of Korean sellers’ full-scale overseas expansion. Now, it is easy to access information and know-how related to entering overseas marketplaces on the Internet, and each market is assigned a dedicated manager, so it has become an era where you can easily start selling online overseas as long as you have an item.

​However, the reality is that selling overseas is not as easy as it sounds due to the problems that have existed since before, such as the biased focus of items among Korean sellers and the price competition that is close to a chicken game. Amazon Marketplace, where many Korean sellers have recently entered, is the world's largest marketplace in name and reality, but in the case of some popular products, due to Amazon's policy of catalog classification and seller listing exposure by price according to that classification, price competition among Korean sellers for the same product has intensified, which has ultimately resulted in the creation of so-called "feedback-only" items that have almost no profit.

I also had an item that rapidly increased in sales when I first started selling overseas, and there was a time when, after the holiday season, there were more than 50 Korean sellers selling the same item in a month. This can be seen as a phenomenon in which the market is large, but the sellers' vision is narrowing. This problem has been discussed since the early days of the marketplace, but it is not an issue that will change easily because price competition is inevitable due to the nature of online sales. Therefore, when selecting items, it is more important than ever to select items that sell well (aka popular items that are easy to source) rather than items that sellers can cherish and develop a long-term vision for.

​If you have been operating in an overseas marketplace for more than a year, you will have established items that suit you and you will want to run these items more effectively and in the long term. This is the time to prepare an overseas shopping mall.

Things that only overseas shopping malls can do

1. Freedom in selecting items for sale and selling methods
In the marketplace, there are products that can and cannot be sold depending on the marketplace policy. In some categories, only sellers who have received certification in the country can sell (e.g. wine). However, there are no restrictions on products sold in the self-shopping mall, and the terms and conditions, shipping, and refund policies are set by the site itself, so any product you want to sell, including pre-order products, digital products, customized (bespoke) products, and custom-made products, can be sold worldwide.

▲ A shopping mall that provides T-shirt printing services (customers can upload their own images as well as create T-shirts with their own designs)

2. Direct marketing (targeting) is possible
The most distinct advantage compared to marketplace sales is that using a shopping mall allows you to create your own domain and a unique URL with that domain, so external marketing is possible. Of course, customer-based marketing is possible. In addition to using your own social channels to do Facebook shop, Pinterest buyable pins, and YouTube review marketing using influencers, you can also enter cashback sites or overseas price comparison sites that are essential for domestic direct purchasers and promote them. Of course, operating Google Adwords and Google Shopping is not optional, it is essential.

▲ Shopify’s marketplace integration

In addition to the marketplaces in the image above, Shopify also allows you to integrate with external marketplaces (sales, inventory, etc.) such as Wish, Etsy, and eBay, and also allows for integrated management through third-party apps specialized in marketplace integration.

3. Marketing possible by target country
The sites eBay.com and Amazon.com are based in the United States, but are used by users all over the world. If you sell on the marketplace for about a year, you will be able to see the countries with the most sales through country-specific sales data. In the case of shopping malls, there is an advantage in that you can focus your marketing on those countries. You can directly select and operate shipping, payment, and marketing specialized for that country.

​4. Utilization of wholesale function
As you sell on the marketplace in a field that many people need, you will receive wholesale inquiries, even in small quantities. These wholesale inquiries are often made on eBay, and the eBay system provides a Wholesale Lot category for each category. However, it is not activated, and wholesale inquiries are often made using Contact Seller, which is an eBay message system. Shopping malls can actively manage wholesale orders by directly operating a wholesale-related page. Shopify's wholesale function is often operated by adding a wholesale function based on retail, and the wholesale function can be operated by dividing it into some products, product quantities, and customers (wholesale-only IDs).

▲ Shopify’s wholesale-related app

5. Free design configuration is possible
In the case of Amazon, there is no area where merchants can add designs except for the logo, and eBay provides a function that allows them to add designs using HTML in the listing description. Korean sellers usually include information about shipping policies and delivery periods, but medium and large sellers in Hong Kong, the US, and Europe, which have many product SKUs, often operate in the form of shopping mall designs using third-party design tools.

▲ eBay template listing design company Frooition

For overseas shopping mall designs, you can purchase themes and set the design yourself, rather than using the monthly subscription form of a design development company. You can purchase the theme and configure the design to suit your shopping mall.

These themes are provided by trend-leading overseas professional design agencies. Template-type themes are in the form of templates that can be customized without having to know development languages ​​such as HTML, CSS, Java script, and Node JS, and they provide setting guides. In addition, since they are made with Bootstrap, they provide responsive templates (automatic optimization for mobile and tablet) that are not provided by domestic shopping carts.

▲ Shopify themes available for purchase on Envato Market (themeforest.net)

▲ Bigcommerce themes available for purchase on Envato Market (themeforest.net)

6. Re-purchase induction and retargeting campaigns are possible based on customer data.

▲ "A million bags" and "My common daily conversation

If you recently purchased from Auction, Gmarket, Coupang, etc., do you remember the seller ID you purchased from? If you remember, that seller either has an amazing nickname or has an extremely good memory! If you like the product you purchased and search for it, but another seller is selling it for 5,000 won cheaper, would you still order from the seller you purchased from? If you purchased from a shopping mall, "10,000,000 Bags" would have given you the brand name (model name) or URL of the shopping mall, and "I" would have been able to purchase it right away through the link.

When I used to run a game-related shopping mall in Korea, one of our VIPs used to spend over 30 million won a year. One day, he bought a product he had previously bought (since it is rare to buy the same game product), so I called him and he said, "I have so many games that I couldn't find where I put them, so I ordered them again. Please just send them to me."

What if there were 100 VIP customers like this? If you target the entire world, what kind of sales can you make if you find only 5 people per country? There may be differences depending on the item, but in the case of shopping malls, if they are satisfied with the product, they will definitely make a repeat purchase. This is rare in marketplaces. In addition to repeat purchases, there may be enthusiastic fans who post reviews, reviews, unboxing videos, etc. on blogs, YouTube, Reddit, etc., and even provide detailed purchase links. Of course, the shopping mall operator can handle it.

In Korea, customer management through SMS, KakaoTalk, etc. is common, but email is the basic medium for acquisition (data) for overseas marketing.

When surfing overseas shopping malls, you may have seen many pop-ups that offer discount coupons if you enter your email address. In overseas countries, email collection is the basic and first step of marketing, so email collection is very important. Accordingly, email marketing apps such as MailChimp and JustUno are also widely used. Management is as important as discovery. Email marketing apps can manage communication with customers more efficiently through automation functions.

▲ Email engagement pop-up using justuno. Enter your email address and a discount coupon will be sent to your email.

7. Use various marketing tools such as traffic analysis

These programs are tools for sites (shopping malls) and cannot be used in principle in marketplaces that do not allow JavaScript. Analytics and pixels are essential apps for shopping malls and must be installed when operating a shopping mall. These are representative indicators that can be obtained from shopping malls using these apps.

• Customers from which country
• At what time
• Using any device (PC, mobile, tablet, etc.)
• Any product on that site
• How long did they spend looking and buying (Shopped) or just closing the window and leaving (Bounce)?
• Data analysis such as whether the purchase was completed (Order) or abandoned (Abandon Cart)

▶ Using this data, you can set goals and create advertising campaigns using AdWords.

To use analysis data more effectively, it is recommended to use site management tool apps provided by Google, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Merchant, Google Shopping, and Google AdWords, in conjunction with each other.

▲ Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools)

8. Reduce marketplace fees
This is probably what marketplace sellers will most agree with. The average marketplace fee is 12-15%, but if you use Amazon FBA, you should set the actual fee at 20-30%, taking into account the return rate. Of course, this fee can be considered a price for traffic. In Banmyung Shopping Mall, there is no fee other than the payment fee and the shopping mall operating cost. However, there is a fate that awaits you to create your own traffic. In order to create traffic, advertising, social marketing, etc. are essential, and the corresponding financial and human resources must be supported. It is no exaggeration to say that the success or failure of a business depends on whether or not you can create your own traffic when you open a shopping mall.

9. Fast settlement cycle
In e-commerce, cash flow, or money management, is as important as sales. A seller around me sold more than $200,000 a month on the marketplace, but there was a case where the cash flow was blocked due to a settlement cycle of over a month, and the business was suspended. However, in the case of payment through PayPal, which is commonly used in shopping malls, there is an advantage in that the payment can be made immediately without a settlement cycle, and the credit card services within the site can be settled in 3-4 business days after the buyer's payment.

10. Facilitated environment for building overseas shopping malls
Up until now, most of the shopping mall builders introduced in Korea were installation-type builders such as Magento, Prestashop, and WordPress-Woocommerce. These installation-type tools were difficult for those who were starting overseas shopping malls for the first time because the users had to manage the hosting themselves, and even after opening, it is true that technical management was not easy.

In the case of Magento, in-house Magento maintenance and repair personnel (developers with extensive Magento operation experience) are absolutely necessary, and in order to properly utilize Magento's core strength, the multi-store function, target marketing for each country is essential. However, without such personnel or preparation, we have seen countless unfortunate cases where the site was barely opened and was not managed, and was left abandoned like an abandoned house until the domain expired. Operating a shopping mall is not the end of the shopping mall opening, but the beginning. It is a virtuous cycle of creating direct traffic through advertising, promotion, and marketing, analyzing that traffic, and repeating reinvestment. If you use Shopify, a rental shopping card used by 600,000 sites worldwide, you can build a shopping mall without professional web knowledge.

This rental shopping card hosting does not require you to worry about technical issues because the shopping card service itself is the hosting, and the CDN (Contents Delivery Network) service provides a stable hosting environment regardless of where you access it from in the world, so shopping mall operators can focus on marketing and selling. In addition, it provides its own 24/7 C/S (chat, email, phone), and an active user forum, so you can easily resolve issues that may arise in terms of technology as well as operation. 300CBT operates Shopify shopping malls directly and provides Shopify construction services and education. Now, you can create Shopify in Korea without the inconvenience of using an overseas agency.

_
Creating a shopping mall? No! Building a multi-sales channel.
Recently, shopping mall tools are not calling themselves shopping mall tools, but e-commerce platforms. They provide a system that allows easy operation by linking with shopping malls, marketplaces, social channels, Google services, etc. This year, instead of being an "eBay seller" or "Amazon seller," we hope you will consider building a professional "overseas shopping mall" that can grow your company's brand and create a virtuous cycle.