Friday, May 18, 2012

Qoo10 New Gmarket Singapore


Gmarket Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia, popular online marketplaces to buy and sell a wide range of products has been rebranded to Qoo10 in May 2012. This means Gmarket Singapore, one of the most visited and popular e-commerce sites in Singapore will soon operate from another domain named http://www.qoo10.com. This new domain is currently active but Gmarket.com.sg is also still be accessible as the activities moves to qoo10.com.

The usage and popularity of the shop has exploded fast according to the Giosis Gmarket International; (runs the site with a joint venture with eBay); daily transaction of gmarket Singapore was reported to be over 10,000 in the Singapore site for March 2011, and doubled to over 20,000 per day in December 2011 and monthly business amount of  6 Million Singapore Dollars.




The site operates like ebay, a platform to meet sellers and buyers. As a buyer you can register free and start buying items immediately from the sellers operating on the site. The site offers a wide range of products from fashion & clothing, beauty products, sport products to electronic gadgets and accessories, books and music.

Registering as a seller requires more work like getting seller authorization by submitting a copy of NRIC and  a copy of Bank statement (foreigners who hold valid work visas for Singapore (Employment Pass, Work Permit ; not a tourist visa) can also register as sellers by submitting the required documents). There is no listing fee in gmarket but you need to pay up to 12% from the sales proceedings to Qoo10. But the charge rate depends on sellers grade (normal, good and power) and the size of the sales and can be as low as 5% for power sellers and sales costing 500 SGD+. As far as I know, they also keep the money 15 days to get a received signal from the buyer and then release to your bank account.

Why did their change their name from gmarket to a hard to pronounce Qoo10? According to the official statement from the company, they would like to expand to global market from Asia and the branding is the step towards this goal. Gmarket Singapore is a quite well known name and leaving it behind for a new brand name is a bold move and we will see how their traffic will be effected. But although the brand name changes, there seems to be no plan to change the structure of the established online shopping and selling experience.

Looking for shoes or fashion online shopping? Also check ZALORA, Asia's largest online fashion shopping site.

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