Australasian online shopping channel, Yes Shop, has signed a supply agreement which could help Australian food manufacturers break into Korea.
The reciprocal agreement allows Australian brands to list their products on Hyundai’s HMall online shopping platform. Hyundai Department Store Group is one of the biggest retailers in South Korea, with its Home Shopping and Online businesses among the biggest there too.
“This supply agreement allows Australian Food & Beverage producers to sell their products to South Korean consumers, without having to invest hundreds of thousands in warehousing, distributing and marketing their products,” said Paul Ding, Director, Yes Shop
HMall carries over 2 million lines of product and has relationships with more than 3,500 suppliers of quality products and global brands. South Korea has the world’s most developed home shopping market, where online retail recently over-took traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ department stores in sales.
“Similar to the Amazon model, producers warehouse their own goods, and ship directly to the purchaser from their warehouse, allowing both large and small businesses to take advantage of this agreement, without needing to invest in a large production run up-front,” Ding said.
“When the Korean Free Trade Agreement is in full effect, nearly 99.8 per cent of goods will enter duty free, meaning that a range of food and beverage producers can use this agreement to gain easy access to the Korean market.
“There’s tremendous demand for high quality Australian food and beverage products in the Korean market. Organic food products including baby foods and those with certain health or beauty benefits are highly sought after."