We made a big effort to enter Korea, but "I knew it"... What will happen to Ali and Temu?

"I was so frustrated that I just gave up."

Mr. Kim (29), who ordered products from Temu, experienced nearly a month-long delay in delivery and also faced difficulties during the refund request process. He contacted the customer service center, but only received awkward responses translated by a translation tool, and the resolution process was overly complicated.

Mr. Kim said, "I heard AliExpress is similar, but I bought something cheaply and only ended up stressed," and added, "From now on, I think I'll just use domestic online shopping malls."

 

AliExpress and Temu, which aggressively entered the Korean market, showed a decline in users. Although they experienced rapid growth through short-term aggressive benefits, it is analyzed that delivery delays and inconvenient services led to consumer attrition.

 

Meanwhile, domestic e-commerce companies are launching counterattacks with differentiated strategies, making the competition even fiercer.

According to the retail analysis service WiseApp Retail on the 4th, AliExpress's monthly active users (MAU) in February were 8.739 million, a 4.1% decrease compared to the previous month.

The number of Temudos decreased by 4.5% to 7.844 million. During the same period, 11st Street decreased by 2.2%, while Coupang increased by 0.8% to 33.2 million, maintaining its market dominance.

In particular, the growth of Gmarket and Auction is remarkable. The two platforms recorded 62.51 million and 31.61 million users respectively, showing a sharp increase of 15.4% and 28.8% compared to the previous month. The success of the 'Digital and Furniture Big Festa' promotion appears to have driven the increase in visitors.

 

The industry points out that AliExpress and Temu attracted short-term users through cash-based promotions, but the pattern of users leaving when benefits are reduced continues to repeat.

Consumer complaints are also an issue. There are many cases of inconvenience caused by delivery delays and complicated exchange and refund procedures. Korean consumers value quick service and high quality, so if these are not met, they are bound to fall behind in the competition.

Nevertheless, the reason Chinese distribution companies do not give up on Korea is clear. It is because of the attractive market factors such as high online purchasing power, the influence of the Korean Wave, and the 5G-based mobile environment.

 

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Buying low-cost items of Daiso quality is worth it, but purchasing items beyond that is not advisable.

 

They say that many subscribers are leaving due to delivery or refund issues.

 

I personally bought a top and bottom set after seeing an advertisement, but I was shocked to receive a completely different product...

 

When I tried to return it, I lost 60% of the fee, so I'm hesitant to buy products from Chinese sites.

 

Honestly, even if they give a little more, if I don't like it, I think it's a hundred times better to use Coupang or domestic sites where returns are easy.