On December 5, 2023, at the 'Giving Export Wings, Overseas Expansion Seminar' hosted by the SBA International Distribution Center, I gave a one-hour presentation on the topic of 'Building and Operating Your Own Mall for Global Exports'.

Representatives who have some domestic sales experience and are in the early stages of overseas expansion or are planning to enter overseas markets attended the event. We focused on the perspective of Sam Baek CBT, which knows the pain points of sellers better than anyone else through direct overseas sales experience, and gave presentations centered on cases, which received a lot of positive responses.

1. Global Marketplace

Global marketplaces, such as Amazon, are the most easily accessible overseas sales method. 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.

• Limited product sales format
• We cannot provide our own marketing as we do not provide customer and traffic data.
• In the case of reselling, branding is impossible due to endless price competition.
• Difficulties in managing cash flow according to settlement period

2. Online Store Builder

Online store builders are broadly divided into three categories. Based on their characteristics, they can be divided into three categories: High Level, Install, and SaaS.

1) High Level

The High Level method represented by Magento allows for backend development, so you can implement almost any desired function. However, this requires dedicated personnel who can handle development knowledge, version updates, bugs, etc.

2) Install

The Install method, represented by WordPress (Woocommerce), allows server management, so API linking, etc. are relatively free. However, this requires dedicated personnel who can handle traffic issues, security issues, etc.

3) SaaS

The SaaS (Software as a Service) method represented by Shopify allows you to focus only on operations and sales without the need for backend development or server management. You can operate the overall store with a minimum of manpower, without the need for development or design personnel.

3. Korean Online Store Builder Issues

The Korean online store builder method represented by Cafe24 is strictly Korean, and since more than 90% of its users are Korean, there are many restrictions when it comes to 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, after the legal issues were resolved in September 2023, it became possible to target both domestic and overseas with a single store.

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