Amazon has revealed plans to help South Korean sellers make international sales via its Amazon Global Selling program.
Amazon laid out its plans during its first press conference in South Korea dubbed the ‘Global Selling Conference’, which was held at COEX this week. The international shopping giant discussed its global selling service, ‘Amazon Global Selling,’ which allows sellers to sell items to other countries without the help of a customer service center or local distribution centre.
According to the company, using its global selling platform can enable South Korean sellers to reach up to 300 million people in 185 countries across the world. Amazon Global Selling not only provides sellers with access to the international market but also provides help in dealing with common problems such as refunds, returns, and issues surrounding international delivery.
Using Fulfillment by Amazon, a one-stop order processing service, sellers can use the distribution center owned by the shopping giant from which the rest of the selling process will be handled by Amazon.
“Though domestic online sales are common, international online sales are still at an early stage in South Korea. We plan to actively help South Korean companies maximise their sales during the most eventful days of the year such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas season,” a company spokesperson said.
Amazon Global Selling was first launched in 2015, and now the international company is set to begin the Korean language service of its portal ‘Seller Central’, as well as providing education programs for South Korean sellers.
During the press conference, which was held in the presence of more than 1000 officials ranging from business partners and government officials to people interested in working with Amazon, Cindy Tai, the head of Amazon Global Selling-Asia, explained the conference was held two years after the global selling service was launched in the country, as an active community has been built only recently.
Amazon’s move to help South Korean online sellers is set to see competition intensify in the online sales market, as similar services are already being operated by the likes of GMarket and 11street.
With the growing number of people who wish to sell their products online in the international market in South Korea, some industry sources believe Amazon’s decision to introduce localised support programs for online sales is part of their effort to boost their competitiveness by training online businesses with potential and encouraging them to use their platform.