Trade group starts online mall to help small businesses

The Korea International Trade Association yesterday launched an online shopping mall called Kmall24 in English, Chinese and Japanese, to expand export opportunities for local small and midsize manufacturers.

The mall allows the companies to explore the business-to-business and business-to-consumer market, as overseas purchases of Korean cultural content is rising. Kmall24 has simple website registration and payment processes for foreigners, since payments can be made through Paypal or Alipay.

It also does not require ActiveX, the Internet Explorer-based public certification system. The mall hopes to give businesses major marketing opportunities by co-listing items on Amazon.com, eBay and China’s largest online shopping website, TMall. Kmall24 said it will impose what it calls a low 5 percent sales commission. The mall plans to support Spanish and Indonesian languages next year.