AliExpress seeks to connect Korean beauty, fashion SMEs to global market

Ray Zhang, AliExpress Korea’s general manager, speaks during AliExpress Korea Seller Forum at Parnas Tower in Seoul, Wednesday, explaining about the company’s new online platform for its Korean tenant sellers, Global Selling. Courtesy of AliExpress Korea

By Ko Dong-hwan

AliExpress Korea is launching a new online platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country to spur their sales overseas, the global e-commerce giant said Wednesday.

With its new platform, Global Selling, Alibaba International aims to enhance sales for Korean sellers by giving them access to the company’s global sales network. This initiative comes in response to the rising global demand for made-in-Korea products in sectors like fashion, beauty, food and K-pop.

Global Selling will first connect Korean sellers to markets in the United States, Spain, France and Japan, making their products available to 150 million consumers in total, according to AliExpress. The company stated that it will expand into additional international markets in the future.

AliExpress has launched the new platform initially for beauty and fashion sellers operating in K-Venue, an online segment introduced last October to support domestic sales for SMEs. Later the company will open the platform to SMEs involved in food and K-pop.

To encourage seller participation, AliExpress Korea announced that Global Selling will implement several business-friendly policies, including waiving the platform usage fee and down payments for new sellers for the first five years.

According to the company, language support — including free online translations in multiple languages for consumers and AliExpress’ business-to-business assistance for Korean sellers — will enable SMEs to operate without language barriers.

The platform pays sellers within 15 days through Alipay International in U.S. dollars, which becomes available for remittance to the sellers’ Korean bank accounts within three days. It also uses Korea Post to ship sellers’ products overseas. Their products are labeled “Shipment from Korea” so as to clearly indicate the origin of the products.

AliExpress Korea’s General Manager Ray Zhang said at a press conference that there is a rising global demand for Korean products, which are known to have outstanding designs and qualities.

“This platform has been designed to lower the threshold for Korean SMEs to enter global markets,” Zhang said. “Alibaba Group and AliExpress will support the country’s local brands with our global networks and resources to help them do business anywhere in the world more easily.”