[Brand Growth Project ① NoTag Korea] ‘Capture the Cross-Border E-Commerce Market by Understanding Local Cultures Overseas.

[Brand Growth Project ① NoTag Korea]

“Capture the Cross-Border E-Commerce Market by Understanding Local Cultures”

In its dictionary sense, “cross-border” refers to businesses or activities that freely cross national boundaries. The term has since expanded to encompass a wide range of fields, from payment methods to trade and even mergers and acquisitions. As new e-commerce consumers grow in number, their diversified purchasing preferences and sustainable growth are driving the rapid expansion of cross-border sellers.

The purchasing potential for Korean brands in overseas markets is enormous. Thanks to the influence of the Korean Wave (Hallyu), the number of consumers seeking K-fashion and lifestyle products continues to rise, boosting export volumes.

NoTag Korea has emerged as a hot topic as a cross-border platform that is better known abroad—especially in Southeast Asia—than in Korea.

CEO Woong Choi of NoTag Korea first began his entrepreneurial journey a decade ago as a Seoul City Young Entrepreneur. Since then, he has been providing an optimized purchasing environment that connects outstanding products from Korean SMEs and microbusinesses with global buyers and consumers, helping them overcome challenges in overseas export.

Companies that sign consignment sales contracts with NoTag can handle the entire process—worldwide shipping, after-sales service, and appropriate pricing tailored to various distribution channels—in a one-stop system, without any significant differences from domestic distribution. This approach has directly increased suppliers’ profits and reduced consumer prices.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when direct overseas expansion was difficult for Korean small and medium-sized brands, CEO Choi operated the Korean fashion & lifestyle cross-border platform “NoTag” in five Southeast Asian countries. We spoke with him to learn about the changes and trends shaping the global market.

What Is NoTag?

The name “NoTag” is a blend of “No” and “Tag,” rejecting supplier-centric fixed pricing (“tag”) and instead emphasizing consumer-driven pricing.NoTag Korea provides a one-stop platform service for overseas expansion of leading Korean fashion brands in online commerce. Services include overseas media promotion, pricing, local payment, shipping, offline retail sales, and the operation of a logistics center and customer service center in Taiwan. By offering a comprehensive overseas market-entry platform, NoTag lowers the barriers for SMEs and designer brands, playing a significant role in helping them become global brands.

The company was founded with the goal of simplifying trade procedures and enabling more competitive pricing after CEO Choi observed, during his time studying in the UK, that Korean products were being sold locally at very high prices due to complex distribution processes.

Why Focus on Cross-Border E-Commerce, Especially for Retailers?

Small business owners often face difficulties using cross-border trading sites such as eBay (B2C) and Alibaba (B2B) due to limited export manpower and insufficient marketing budgets. However, because product demand and consumption differ by local culture and sentiment, Choi believed that adjusting sales strategies on the ground based on market reactions could open attractive opportunities.

If retailers formulate robust sales strategies based on online market data from overseas, they can achieve stable profit generation.

How Does NoTag Differ from Alibaba or eBay, and What Are Its Management Goals?

“There is a saying that the best marketing is the product itself,” says Choi.NoTag’s marketing philosophy is to “promote as many competitive Korean products overseas as possible.”

NoTag aims to highlight the excellence of Korean brands—which can compete and win globally in design, quality, and price.Through consignment sales agreements, NoTag handles every step of the export process—foreign-language translation, overseas promotion, buyer outreach, global shipping, multi-currency payment, and after-sales service—without additional costs for the partner brands.

As designer creations gain brand recognition, NoTag continues to provide a one-stop service: setting appropriate prices for various distribution platforms, running local media promotions, managing local payment and shipping, and operating local logistics centers and customer service centers.

The company’s goal is to help leading Korean fashion and lifestyle brands expand globally—even for those who cannot venture abroad directly—ultimately becoming a new-concept cross-border e-commerce platform.

Selected as an Official Global Platform for “Design Korea Shop”

The Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) launched the Design Korea Shop (DK Shop) brand to support the distribution of high-quality design consumer goods, discovering major domestic and international distribution channels such as SSG.COM.Before entering the Southeast Asian market, Korean design consumer brands face complex trade and distribution procedures.

NoTag’s extensive know-how and experience in all stages of Southeast Asian online exports made it stand out. Brands with little export experience can join NoTag and gain integrated access to leading Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms like Shopee and Lazada, which was a key factor in its selection.

Over a decade of trade distribution consulting, combined with IT capabilities, enabled NoTag to build global insight, accumulating import/export experience through over 800 overseas distribution companies. This expertise opened the door to mobile commerce not only in Southeast Asia but also in Europe, the Middle East, CIS countries, and South America.

Current Operations and Expansion Plans

NoTag currently operates its cross-border platform in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia.Unlike open markets with easier entry, NoTag carefully selects brand partners only after thorough analysis by local marketers in each country.

Looking ahead, NoTag plans to expand services to regions where Korean companies find it difficult to enter, such as Europe, the Middle East, and CIS countries.The company is already conducting local market research and hiring staff in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with plans to establish local offices.

One of the biggest achievements this year was securing seed funding from Mashup Angels, an early-stage venture capital firm known for investing in companies such as Today’s House and StyleShare.With the support and expectations of its investors, NoTag aims to further expand beyond Southeast Asia and enter the European market in 2022.

Changes After COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic not only transformed daily life but also triggered explosive growth in the global e-commerce market, ushering in an era where even small and medium-sized companies can expand globally through mobile platforms.This is now an opportune moment to enter the world market, leveraging optimized online platforms not only in Asia but also in Europe, the Middle East, CIS countries, and South America.

Before the pandemic, NoTag primarily helped small fashion and design companies seek overseas opportunities.After COVID-19, mid-sized companies facing difficulties in directly entering Southeast Asia began using NoTag to strategize their exports.

For example, in the past year:

• MARHEN.J recorded 15 billion KRW in sales,

• Snowline Co., Ltd. reached 33 billion KRW,

• Louis Quatorze achieved 60 billion KRW—all of whom officially joined NoTag to develop their distribution strategies.

  
  

Although e-commerce was already on the rise before the pandemic, global consumers have now fully adapted to online shopping habits, naturally fueling the growth of borderless commerce—purchasing goods from overseas sellers.This highlights the importance of paying attention to cross-border e-commerce.

Source: Today T (http://www.todayt.co.kr)