AliExpress promises to intensify blitz marketing campaign in South Korea

HANGZHOU, China, September 10 (Korea Bizwire) — AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, said Tuesday it plans to step up its marketing efforts in South Korea, aiming to acquire more than half of the online shopping platform’s users in the country within three to five years.

At a press conference held in Hangzhou, AliExpress Korea CEO Ray Zhang announced a goal of expanding into the Korean market, which is dominated by local e-commerce giant Coupang Inc.

The Chinese e-commerce platform has been aggressively promoting around 150 million products at competitive prices since last year, helping it gain market share in the Korean e-commerce market.

In August, AliExpress ranked third in monthly active users with 6.69 million, behind Coupang with 13.38 million and 11Street Co. with 7.68 million.

Given that the number of e-commerce users in the country is about 34 million, AliExpress aims to attract 17 million users in the next few years through marketing activities and infrastructure investments, a company spokesman said over the phone.

AliExpress said detailed plans for its logistics center in Korea could be announced in the first half of next year.

“We are working with a Korean company to build a logistics center equipped with advanced, intelligent technologies,” the CEO said.

In October, AliExpress launched the K-Venue platform, which enables small and medium-sized Korean businesses to sell home appliances, food and beverages, and other daily items.

The Chinese platform said Korean companies may not pay any commissions to AliExpress until December in exchange for “mutual growth.”

In recent years, Chinese e-commerce platforms including Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, and AliExpress have been marketing aggressively to attract Korean customers and lure them away from larger local rivals such as Coupang.

(Jonhap)