US based e-commerce company Amazon is intensifying its efforts to infiltrate the Korean online retail market, having advertised its need to recruit local distributors earlier today. Previously, the company only offered their cloud computing solutions in the region, despite being known worldwide for their e-commerce services.
Amazon entered the Korean market in 2012 by establishing AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud solutions in the region. Since then, they have acquired several large Korean clients like Samsung, Amore Pacific and Nexon. However, their online retail ambitions have been brought to the forefront with their latest moves.
Amazon has yet to specifically detail its online retail expansion strategy for the Korean market, but analysts suggest that the company is expected to pose a significant threat to existing rivals in the region once they secure adequate selling manpower and lay out a proper distribution network.
If, as expected, the company were to offer Korean language services, it would enable domestic online shoppers to purchase foreign products with greater ease and convenience using Amazon’s state-of-the-art retail and logistics systems.
The expansion into Korea follows a similiar model used by Amazon in Japan. In 2016, sales in the country were up 17.5% as compared to 2015.