Attack on Yongjin hyung… The online shopping plate is a reversible secret weapon

◆ Coupang Distribution Big Bang ⑤ ◆

Following the stake exchange with Naver and participation in the acquisition of eBay Korea, Shinsegae Group will enter the’open market’. An open market is an online marketplace where sellers and buyers buy and sell products directly online.

Shinsegae Group’s integrated online mall’SSG.com’ announced on the 24th that it plans to pilot open markets from the 20th of next month and start official service in the first half of the year. The reason SSG.com decided to introduce the open market is to significantly increase the number of products handled (SKU). In the open market, various sellers enter the online mall to sell products, so consumers can have a wide range of options to secure’competitiveness’.

On this day, SSG.com opened a platform dedicated to open market sellers,’SSG Partners (Seller Center). Sellers who will be active in the SSG.com open market in the future can register products to be sold on this platform in advance. In order to revitalize the open market, the criteria for entering sellers have also been drastically lowered. Previously, in order to enter SSG.com, a store application, screening, and approval process were required. However, for open market sellers, the sign-up process was simplified so that only the mobile phone authentication in the name of the person was authenticated, omitting this process.

However, SSG.com plans to block open market user registration for some fashion category products, including fresh food and global luxury brands. As both items are in the areas that SSG.com has already had strong points (e-mart store delivery for fresh food and early morning delivery of SSG.com, and Shinsegae Department Store for fashion), it will increase competitiveness apart from the open market.

There is also an intention to maintain product reliability. For fresh food, due to the nature of an open market where the seller contracts with a courier and sends products to consumers individually, there may be a problem that the freshness decreases or the delivery time is delayed during the delivery process. Fashion brands such as luxury goods may cause damage to consumers due to sellers who register so-called’fake’ products.

The reason SSG.com introduces open market service is that it can expand its product assortment in a short time without a large investment. Unlike existing general malls where product planners (MDs) or managers must directly purchase products or discover suppliers individually, open markets take care of everything from product registration to payment and delivery by creating a platform. Due to the nature of online shopping in which consumers access product pages through search, the more products handled, the higher the likelihood that customers will enter the platform. SSG.com, which is operated as an integrated online mall of Shinsegae Group, currently has 10 million SKUs, and SSG.com is expected to increase to a similar level as the SKU of one representative open market is about 50 million.

The ultimate goal of this open market strategy is to raise the market share of Shinsegae Group’s e-commerce, which is still insignificant. Last year’s SSG.com transaction amounted to 3.900 trillion won, not only far below the industry leaders Naver Shopping (26.800 billion won) and Coupang (2.900 trillion won), but also behind Lotte On (7.6 trillion won). The market share also remained at the 2.4% level.

The industry believes that an open market strategy is essential for SSG.com, a latecomer, to expand its influence as quickly as possible in the online market where leaders have already established itself.

For similar reasons, other retailers are introducing open market services one after another. In January, Homeplus renewed its online mall in the form of an open market and introduced it. Earlier, Lotte Shopping also installed an open market service when launching Lotte On.

Shinsegae Group’s online territorial expansion efforts are expected to accelerate. At the E-Mart shareholders’ meeting held that day, Kang Hee-seok, CEO of E-Mart and SsG.com, said, “We will boldly work to strengthen our online-offline collaboration system. We will also promote strategic alliances with external companies in various ways.

[김기정 기자 / 김태성 기자]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]