Support for Overseas 'Online Mall' Entry... Participating Companies' Average Exports Increase by 400%

Ministry of SMEs and Startups
Non-face-to-face Online Export Marketing Achievements

Source: Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] #Domestic mask specialist company A. This company was a domestic-focused business, but through the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' policy to strengthen non-face-to-face (untact) overseas online marketing, it entered the US Amazon marketplace and sold 420 million KRW worth of products from the beginning of this year until last month. This is a 140-fold increase compared to last year's sales of 3 million KRW.

#Multifunctional cooking appliance specialist company B participated in a video consultation meeting through collaboration between the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and export-related organizations. After continuous practical consultations, they signed a distribution purchase agreement worth 2 million USD with a local buyer in Malaysia. Currently, 100 cooking appliances pre-ordered for product launch have been shipped to Malaysia.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 14th that in response to the changed export environment due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it converted existing offline projects to untact methods in the first half of this year and significantly strengthened overseas online marketing and Hallyu marketing, achieving numerous export support results.

The export support achievements for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) utilizing this untact online trend were announced at the Foreign Economic Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office this morning. First, through support for entry into overseas online malls such as Amazon and marketing linkage support, the average export of participating companies increased by 400%. In particular, many companies that were domestic-only but achieved their first export by entering overseas malls recorded export amounts exceeding 10,000 USD as of July this year.

Also, through video consultation meetings to support domestic SME exports, transactions worth 18 million USD have been achieved from 131 companies. From April to July this year, about 1,000 companies participated in video consultation meetings co-hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and export-related organizations. Over 2,000 consultation matches and consultations worth 200 million USD were conducted.

Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Four Major Tasks for Untact Online Export Activation, Advancement, and Infrastructure Expansion

The export achievements through Korea's representative brands designated by the government are significant. The average export growth rate through the 'BrandK' national representative brand certification recorded 22%. Continuous brand exposure through the BrandK pavilion and Hallyu-linked marketing influenced this. From June to July this year, sales through untact distribution such as online special exhibitions combining K-pop and live commerce during the 'Korea Together Sale' reached 25.94 billion KRW.

Based on the achievements of policies promoted in the first half of this year, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to pursue four key tasks to expand and develop untact online export support: ▲Advancement of untact methods ▲Expansion of untact transactions ▲Discovery and fostering of new untact growth engines ▲Infrastructure expansion.

First, by combining offline exhibitions and consultation meetings with online video consultations, they will build dedicated offline showrooms for promising SME products utilizing collaboration networks such as 'Jasanghan Companies.' They plan to operate themed and regional video consultation meetings focused on performance creation through untact participation in overseas exhibitions using local experts and strengthening pre- and post-management on a regular basis.

Additionally, they will expand support for domestic companies' transformation into online export companies by improving linkage with domestic and overseas online malls and support for entry into overseas online malls, as well as expand support for entry into emerging markets. They plan to strengthen promotion through home shopping and online malls using BrandK, Hallyu marketing, and live commerce.

In particular, they will conduct comprehensive activities such as discovering promising untact startups, supporting testbeds, local settlement, and market development. Furthermore, they plan to expand infrastructure including support for establishing entry strategies using big data, training specialized personnel, and building infrastructure related to video conferencing.

Shim Jaeyoon, Director of the Global Growth Policy Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "The government, in cooperation with related ministries, will prepare a comprehensive non-face-to-face online export activation plan by next month to create a breakthrough for our exports and improve the export structure, and will also organize the legal and institutional foundation for this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.