"Support for SME Online and Offline Market Expansion"... Ministry of SMEs and Startups Recruiting Participating Companies

Support for Home Shopping Broadcasts and Online Promotional Events

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 12th that it is recruiting participating companies for the ‘2024 SME Marketing Support Project’ to support small and medium-sized enterprises in developing online and offline sales channels.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups

This year, the SME Marketing Support Project is divided into six categories: home shopping broadcasting support, online special exhibition project, offline sales channel support project, self-owned mall construction support project, SME product exclusive sales store entry support project, and SME joint after-sales service (A/S) support project. The total support budget is 20.6 billion KRW.

The home shopping broadcasting support project helps SMEs enter TV home shopping and data home shopping channels. The TV home shopping project supports costs such as product information video production and model usage fees. The channels include six companies: CJ, GS, Lotte, Hyundai, Gongyoung, and NS Home Shopping. Detailed information on eligibility, application methods, and selection procedures can be found in the project announcement posted on Panpandaero starting from the 13th. The data home shopping entry project will separately announce supported channels and detailed support conditions next month.

The online special exhibition project opens special exhibitions for SME products on about 10 comprehensive online malls such as Wemakeprice and Gmarket. To promote SME products, banner advertisements and discount coupon issuance are supported for each online shopping mall channel.

The offline sales channel support project helps SMEs participate in offline special exhibitions operated by large distribution networks such as Shinsegae Department Store, Hyundai Department Store, GS Retail, and Shinsegae Duty Free Shop to sell their products.

Additionally, if SMEs wish to sell their products directly to consumers, the project supports the costs of newly building online shopping malls.

The SME product exclusive sales store entry support project provides product sales space free of charge in ‘SME Product Exclusive Sales Stores’ installed and operated at six locations including duty-free shops and department stores for SMEs that have not secured sales channels.

The SME joint A/S support project conducts repair agency services and consultations for broken products by linking with repair agencies and joint A/S call centers that have nationwide A/S service networks. This plan aims to enhance convenience for consumers who purchase SME products.

Choi Won-young, Director of Global Growth Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “Compared to large and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs face difficulties in developing sales channels due to relatively limited physical and human resources. We will cooperate with the private sector, which has excellent distribution channels, to activate market entry of SME products while also supporting the strengthening of SMEs’ own marketing capabilities.”

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