South Korea is a hotly competitive ecommerce market. Consumers there often prefer marketplaces, such as 11street, as well as aggressive discounts and loyalty-reward programs.
South Korea is the seventh largest retail ecommerce market in the world and the third largest in Asia Pacific, after China and Japan. It boasts the fastest Internet speeds in the world, which drives one of the highest ecommerce penetration rates in Asia Pacific of close to 65 percent.
Ecommerce comprises roughly 10 percent of retail sales in the country. Two dominant ecommerce sites in the country are marketplaces: Gmarket and 11street. A third major site, Coupang, launched a marketplace recently that already has 25,000 sellers.