Shopping in Offshore Cyber Malls Surging
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
A growing number of Korean consumers are buying shoes, clothes, books and other household items from offshore cyber shopping malls due to lower prices when compared to Korean online shops, according to the Korea Customs Service (KCS) Tuesday.
The customs agency said about 16.4 percent of the total incoming parcels, or 253,000 parcels, carried a broad range of household articles worth $50.3 million last year. This is up from 197,000 parcels in 2007 and 125,000 parcels in 2006. It has increased by five-fold from 2004 when only 51,000 packages were shipped from online shops operating in other countries.
Clothes accounted for 31.7 percent of the total incoming parcels sent by foreign cyber malls, followed by shoes at 7.1 percent and books at 3.6 percent. By country, domestic consumers bought 79.1 percent of the total from online shops set up in the United States, followed by Japan at 7.2 percent and Europe at 6.7 percent.
A KCS official attributed a rise in the purchasing of various items in non-Korean cyber malls to lower prices compared to domestic malls, and intensifying competition to lure more customers in the wake of the global economic downturn.
``But the smugglings of narcotics and other illegal items, as well as diverse counterfeits, are increasing in line with more Korean online shopping cross the border,'' the official said. ``We will closely monitor incoming parcels and step up efforts to clamp down on smuggling.''
Last year, the agency seized a total of 42.4 kilograms of illegal narcotics. Of the 42.4 kilograms, 5.3 kilograms or 12.5 percent of the total, were concealed in international parcels.
To prevent smuggling bogus items into the country, the KCS said it will continue to educate customs officers about the protection of intellectual property rights and introduce more advanced and accurate cargo sample techniques. It also plans to share more information with other customs authorities and carry out an awareness campaign warning against bringing counterfeits into the country.