"Boosting Online Competitiveness"...Ministry Seeks Small Business Owners for TOPS Program

Focusing on Food, Home Living, Fashion, and Beauty

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 25th that it is recruiting small business owners to participate in the "2026 Online Brand Small Business Support Project" (TOPS Program), which is designed to discover and nurture small businesses with high growth potential in the online market.

As the online distribution environment has recently shifted to a platform-centered structure, competition in online sales among small business owners has become increasingly fierce. Accordingly, there is a growing need for systematic support that goes beyond simple onboarding assistance to focus on increasing sales and strengthening brand competitiveness.

To respond to this demand, the Ministry has been supporting the expansion of online sales channels and growth of small business owners since last year through the TOPS Program, in collaboration with private platforms.

This year, the TOPS Program will focus on four key sectors - food, home living, fashion, and beauty - taking into account consumer trends and market growth potential. A total of 3,500 small business owners will receive step-by-step, customized support.

In the first stage, the program will help generate initial results through support for product planning and marketing, as well as online special promotions. In the second stage, small business owners who achieve outstanding results in the first stage will be selected and receive intensive support for brand advancement, sales promotions, and marketing campaigns to drive sales growth. In the third stage, the final selected small business owners will receive support to establish themselves and make a leap forward as online brands.

The TOPS Program is operated based on collaboration with private platform companies. This year, leveraging this collaborative structure, the program will provide 1:1 customized consulting based on sales data to systematically support small business owners in establishing product planning and marketing strategies.

In addition, the number of participating platforms will be expanded from the existing 10 companies to 13, diversifying specialized programs by sector and enabling small business owners to choose from a wider range of sales channels and support programs. The program will also strengthen its support system by expanding linkages with win-win growth support funds and sales channel support projects run by related organizations, so that companies with excellent performance can continue to secure follow-up growth opportunities.

Small business owners who wish to participate in the project can apply through the Panpandaero website and must select one platform company in their desired sector when applying. After applications are submitted, the final beneficiaries will be selected through document review and evaluations in which product planning experts from each platform company directly participate, and support will begin in April.

Park Sangyong, Director General for Small Business Management Stability Support at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "The TOPS Program is a representative public-private partnership project that supports small business owners in building a foundation for self-sustaining growth in the online market through collaboration with private platforms," adding, "This year, we will actively support the sustainable growth of online brand-focused small business owners through more strategic support centered on sectors with high growth potential."

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