The majority of online shops in Korea service the domestic market only which means no international shipping and customer service in Korean only. KoreanBuddy allows anyone, in any country, easy access the thousands of skincare products, fashion products, Kpop products found on any Korean site. We are the most efficient Kshopping experts.
To make your Kshopping experience as easy as possible I have put together this list of 7 quick tips to help you find products in Korea.
1) Where to Search
Know what you want? Tip: Use Naver Shopping to search. The same product will be for sale on many different sites at different prices. Naver Shopping delivers results from most online shops, and that will save you money.
2) Learn the Lingo
We have a glossary of shopping terms to help you out, but if I had to choose only 2 terms, those 2 would be 품절 and 배송비. Tip: 품절 means sold out. Believe it or not, 20% of everything you see online is sold out. If your lucky, the product will be marked 품절. You cannot buy items that are sold out. Tip: 배송비 means delivery fee. The standard delivery fee in Korea is 2500 won or about $2.45. This is frequently charged on cosmetics orders under 30,000 won ($29) and clothing orders under 50,000 won ($49). Some shops charge a delivery fee and some don’t, if you see 무료배송 or 배송비 무료 then delivery is free!
3) Same Product Lower Price
Online shops which have both a Korean site and an English site charge different prices for the same item on each site. Tip: Find the item you would like on the English site and use the product code to find the same product at a lower price on the Korean site.
An example item from Mixxmix These shirts are $25.93, on sale on the English site. The product code is “51764.” Copy that and go to the Korean site.
Choose any item and replace the item code with “51764” Same shorts on Mixxmix more than 10% cheaper.
4) Translate
Your internet browser can translate Korean websites, not perfectly though. Tip: translate clothing pages to get the product names and colour options.
To do this in Chrome:
-
In the top right corner of the browser window, click the Chrome menu .
-
Select Settings.
-
Scroll down and click Show advanced settings.
-
In the “Languages” section, uncheck “Offer to translate pages that aren’t in a language you read” box.
*Internet Explorer also has this feature.
5) Shopping Carts
Tip: Dropping items into a shopping cart will help you in 2 ways. First, it will show you the cost of all items in your order and second, it will show whether there is a delivery fee or not.
