Gmarket looking to make shopping easier

Korea is very much a fashion-oriented country. Mix their love of the latest trend with the obsession with the internet and you have a Korean competitor for Amazon and eBay.

Gmarket is the one stop online store for people who are looking for, well, just about anything. Right away you will be hit with a couple of challenges, though.

The first hurdle is how to register to be able to make purchases. The registration option is easy to find but make sure you check that the availability of your ID and email is okay with the button provided.

The second obstacle is the same one faced by anyone who doesn`t read Korean very well. Aside from the fact that you can change the language option to English on the website itself, there are still products that have Korean text detailing them.

When I started exploring this site I really didn`t have anything specific I wanted to buy. I knew I was kind of interested in finding a lens for my camera, perhaps an English DVD or maybe even some clothes that would fit a normal size expat male.

Gmarket works like Amazon.com. There is a set price, advertised as far less than the store price - but unlike eBay there is no time limit for bids.

There is however a similar option to eBay. For some items there is a price bargain button. If you feel the item you want to purchase should be less, you set the price you feel would be better suited for the product. Then as Gmarket advertises, you wait at least six hours for the seller to respond.

I got tricked a couple times thinking I was the only person bidding for an item but in fact the seller refused my lower price because he got a better offer. So although there isn`t a time limit to bidding, there are other people competing for the same item.

As I surfed the site I realized Gmarket has something eBay and Amazon do not. Although this might sound obvious, they sell items Koreans are interested in while eBay and Amazon cater to a more North American audience. While surfing the Gmarket site I came across a "European" camera bag. Just for fun I checked out eBay and Amazon to see if they had the same bag. They didn`t. Due to the photography craze in Korea, there were better items on Gmarket than there were on North American online retailers.

I am still not sure if I am going to get the bag, but this item comparison helped me see the advantages of Gmarket over the other sites.

If you want something away from the norm, check out this site. www.gmarket.co.kr

By Matthew Graveline

(graveline.matthew@gmail.com)