Alibaba Group’s overseas direct purchasing platform, AliExpress, is expanding its operations in Korea. In order to increase brand awareness, AliExpress will invest 100 billion dollars this year in targeted marketing activities and television advertising.
At a press conference held on March 9th at K-Pop Square in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu district, Ray Zhang, AliExpress’ Korea representative, stated that the company aims to “gain the trust and love of Korean consumers by breaking down barriers to direct overseas purchasing and providing a better customer experience.”
Since its launch in the Korean market in 2018, AliExpress has gradually improved its services. The platform added convenient payment services such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay, and promised free 3-5 day shipping by partnering with CJ Korea Express. The company also established a customer center in the metropolitan area at the end of last year.
This year, AliExpress has launched its first television advertisement featuring popular actor Ma Dong-seok as its model, emphasizing his friendly and reliable image as a problem solver. The platform will also start offering curation services such as “Choice,” which promotes globally popular products planned and sold by AliExpress, with “Choice Day” events held between the 1st and 3rd of each month. “Taobao Collection,” a women’s clothing sales service, will also debut, featuring 100,000 new items every day.
In addition, AliExpress will customize its marketing strategy to fit Korean preferences. While the platform has previously held events such as the 6.18 Shopping Festival and Guanggun Festival in China, AliExpress will now reflect the Korean market situation in its events. For example, in May, it plans to hold a toy discount event for children and nieces and nephews in celebration of Family Month.
Ray Zhang, the company’s Korea representative, expressed his confidence in AliExpress’ potential as a game changer, stating that the platform has over 200 logistics networks and networks, with more than 60% of its users under the age of 35. At the ceremony, Shin Young-soo, CJ Korea Express’ representative for the delivery and e-commerce divisions, praised AliExpress’ potential to increase delivery volume with a variety of promotions and vowed to raise the customs clearance rate from the current 93% to 95%.
