Internet-Traditional Market

East Gate Market and South Gate Market, two biggest domestic commercial markets, have recently revitalized their market business through the internet. Both East and South Gate markets have been having hard time rallied by the big clearance sale markets and the department stores. They, however, began to open cyber-shopping mall one after another and bring over not only domestic merchants but also merchants from Japan, Russia, and China. Two markets have decided to carve their ways through the advanced internet on-line trade.

Internet shopping malls, introduced to the traditional markets two to three years ago, only functioned for the introduction of goods. However, they are transforming into the advanced international on-line trade markets. Many internet on-line trade sites are found at the East and South Gate market web sites. ShoppingDDM (www.shoppingddm.com) offers the solution for mail order-production. It helps not only wholesale and retail sale merchants, but also general corporations and groups for purchases. It also handles the surplus of goods in stock through the middle-management system.

The strength of Eveclub, a female fashion shopping mall (www.eveclub.com), is its specialization. For instance, it produces the maternal wardrobe through their membership survey.

Thinkind, specialized in shoes, and the Codymall (www.codymall.com), specialized in fashion coordination for the new generation, are also popular websites.

e-Namdemun (www.e―namdaemum.com), which supports the trade between local merchants and the wholesale merchants, will open in July.

The transformation for the internationalization is clear. Internet-Dongdaemun (www.dongdaemun.com) helps exports and wholesale trade by connecting 30 Dongdaemun markets to 30,000 branches. It has service in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian.

Cybermarketasia (www.cybermarketasia.com) orders all kinds of accessories in the Namdaemun markets from the domestic and abroad through the internet. It has English service site and also offers trade item for the imports-exports.

Park Kyung-sik, director of Internet-Dongdaemun, said, ‘The consciousness of merchants, which used to be the major stumbling block for the cyber-shopping mall, have changed a lot’. He also predicts that ‘Internet-shopping malls’ sales to the foreign buyers, such as Chinese, will greatly increase’.

Lee Kuk-myung lkmhan@donga.com