Black Friday, one of busiest shopping days in the US, has also prompted South Korean consumers to tap the shopping opportunity with the number of local online shoppers on international shopping service websites soaring during the shopping period.
Korean online retailer GS Shop’s Plein, its purchasing broker division for foreign products, saw its sales more than double during three days following Black Friday compared to the same period last year. Its sales on Black Friday alone surged over 200 percent on-year and sales on the ensuing weekend jumped 60 percent.
The phenomenal growth was also observed on local online e-commerce marketplaces that run the international shopping service business. Auction, the online retail website of eBay Korea, said the company posted a 30 percent on-year sales growth during the three days. The number is up 10 percentage points compared to the same period last week. Sales at another online marketplace 11Street went up 31 percent on-year, with the overall solid sales in fashion and sports categories.
“Korean consumers had received tax exemptions only when the combined payment of foreign product’s price and its shipment was 150,000 won ($138.30) or less. However, under the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that recently took effect, Koreans can enjoy higher customs-free shopping benefit with the $200 customs-free threshold applied for goods brought overseas. This gives local consumers impression that they are getting better deals for wider range of foreign products,” said a source in the domestic retail sector. “In addition, the all-time low won-dollar exchange rate this year has encouraged more consumers to benefit from Black Friday shopping.”
Black Friday is the day following the US holiday Thanksgiving Day, the last Thursday of November, and traditionally marks the starting of holiday shopping season. The US consumer’s spending on the day is estimated to account for 20 percent of the total annual spending.
[Written by Dong-woo Sohn - Sun-ah Kim / edited by Soyoung Chung]
[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
