Thai flagship store bound for Coupang
South Korea’s largest e-commerce company already serves as major trade avenue
Thailand is looking to have a flagship store in Coupang, South Korea’s largest e-commerce company, to boost online sales of Thai products.
The country has been promoting the Thai mall on the Coupang e-commerce platform since August, with 899 stock-keeping units (SKUs), mostly food and beverage items, worth more than 118 million baht imported through Coupang.
Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong, who met executives of Coupang in South Korea on Thursday, said the two parties agreed to expand cooperation and sell more Thai products on the website.
The cooperation will cover the creation of a “Thai Mall” online platform on Coupang to sell a variety of exclusive Thai goods, including readyto-eat, lifestyle, furniture, pet and spa products.
The ministry aims to increase the sales volume to at least 200 million baht next year.
Mr Sontirat said the online platform will help accelerate export volumes to South Korea by 7% in 2019.
He said Korean customers prefer buying imports through the online platform.
South Korea’s Customs Service predicts that imports through the online platform will rise by 30% to US$2 billion (66.1 billion baht) this year.
E-commerce trade is growing fast in South Korea, with domestic e-commerce this year estimated at more than $100 billion, up 14% from 2017.
In 2017, the Commerce Ministry said online trade had a 30% share of the total retail industry in South Korea. More than 91% of the population uses smartphones, with goods purchases via mobile devices making up more than 50% of total e-commerce volume.
“South Koreans know Thai brands from travelling here,” Mr Sontirat said, pointing out that 1.5 million South Koreans visit Thailand every year.
Popular online purchases of Thai products by South Korean buyers include dipping sauce for chicken, beverages, fruit juice, snacks, dried fruits and Thai seasonings.
Thailand’s exports to South Korea amounted to $4.66 billion in 2017, up 14.4% from 2016. The majority of exports were agricultural products, particularly rice.
The Commerce Ministry aims to increase exports to South Korea by 12% this year.
For the first 10 months of this year, shipments rose by 6.7% year-on-year to $4.16 billion.
Mr Sontirat said he also met Shin MyoungJin, president of the Korea Importers Association (Koima), to discuss the possibility of a closer partnership with a group of Korean importers.
Koima is under the supervision of South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and is the exclusive trade association that promotes imports, with a membership of 8,500 import companies.
During July 11-14, Koima visited Thailand and set up the Korea-Thailand Trade Partnership to create networks between the two countries.
The target is to increase import volume from Thailand to more than 300 million baht in value next year.
South Koreans know Thai brands from travelling here. SONTIRAT SONTIJIRAWONG COMMERCE MINISTER