Korean shoppers pull back from overseas apps over safety concerns, Seoul survey finds
Nearly half of Korean consumers who buy from overseas e-commerce platforms say they are scaling back due to concerns about product safety, according to a new survey released Friday by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
The city’s Electronic Commerce Center found that 45.3 percent of respondents with cross-border shopping experience had reduced purchases from overseas platforms due to safety issues. Only 5.4 percent said they had increased their overseas shopping.
The rest said they had either become more cautious or made no change.
The shift coincides with Seoul’s recent safety inspections of overseas direct-purchase products, some of which failed to meet local safety standards. City officials say the results demonstrate that product safety disclosures directly influence consumer decision-making, especially when transparency from sellers is lacking.
The same study also evaluated ten of Korea’s 10 most widely used online shopping platforms and found that China-based Temu and AliExpress received the lowest overall satisfaction scores, while local services ranked consistently higher.
SSG.com topped the list with a score of 87.4 out of 100, followed by Naver Smart Store (86.9), LotteON (86.5) and KakaoTalk Shopping (86.0).
Temu scored 78.9, and AliExpress 77.5.
Platforms were assessed based on three categories: compliance with consumer protection standards (50 points), handling of reported consumer damages (10 points), and user satisfaction (40 points). The survey was conducted online from Oct. 2 to 14, with responses from 1,000 consumers aged 20 to 50 who had used one or more of the platforms within the past year.
Respondents cited poor customer service infrastructure and inadequate legal transparency as key concerns. Temu only lists international contact numbers, making its call center inaccessible to Korean users. AliExpress lacked a Korean-language help center early on and was found to be in violation of Korea’s E-Commerce Act by failing to display a business registration number and omitting standard refund and cancellation terms in its user agreement.
Despite aggressive advertising campaigns and wide app adoption, over 24 million combined installs in Korea this year, both platforms have struggled with retention. Data from WiseApp shows that in March, monthly active users for AliExpress dropped by 4.1 percent and Temu by 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Korea’s biggest player, Coupang, remains dominant with over 31.5 million monthly users and more than half the country’s e-commerce payment volume.
Source: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10611286 |
