Interview with Ms Ying of KoreanThings.com

KoreanThings offers imported skin care products and other korean specialities

KoreanThings offers imported skin care products and other korean specialities

What is Korean Things?
KoreanThings.com was originally a blog shop that held monthly spree shopping for products that originate from Korea. Spree is a concept where orders are gathered and then purchased in bulk from manufacturers or retail stores overseas.

KoreanThings.com now operates like an online store. It is still a spree shopping site, just that anyone can submit their orders anytime and feels no different like online retail stores. The only difference from online retail stores is that we do not keep inventory of stocks. The orders are only submitted to our agents in Korea for purchase if shoppers order them, which really is a pre-order. We do have stocks for some items that are bought in excess.

How it came into being?
I am a Korean culture fanatic. I love everything Korean, from music, movies and TV dramas, pop idols, Kimchi, and other stuff. I started blogging about it about three years ago and got awarded the Top 100 Power Blog in 2009 from Korea Tourism Board and then people started asking me if I would like to organize spree shopping.

Most Korean online stores do not ship overseas and secondly they’re in Korean Language. This makes buying products from the Korean market almost impossible for most people. So I decided to start organizing spree shopping for Korean stuffs.

What is the highlight of your online shop? what makes you different?
The USP of KoreanThings.com is as listed

  • Wide Range: one can buy from a wide range of Korean Skincare brands (100 + brands). We give out free samples with every purchase and customers are entitled to free skincare gifts once they hit a certain amount.
  • Concierge service: anything not listed on the website can be requested to be acquired from Korea. If the buyers do not know where to buy the item, we will source it for them (a free of charge service)
  • Hot collectible items as shown in popular Korean drama are sourced
  • No minimum purchase is required.

Who is it targeted for? 
Most people that bought from KoreanThings.com are female because most items displayed on the site are skincare products, but there are also male customers because at KoreanThings.com, you can buy anything as long as it is from Korea. So anyone, girls or boys, young or old, can shop at our store.

What kind of products or services should one expect from your website? 
Actually we had wanted to list the products that are listed on the site but then again customers can buy much more than that at KoreanThings.com. Remember, as long as it can be found in Korea, we can get it for you. As a note, customers cannot buy food items and electronics through KoreanThings.com due to complications.

How can one keep updated of upcoming trends in Korea? 
Customers can get updates, news, promotions and coupons by subscribing to KoreanThings.com newsletters and like our page on Facebook. Some promotions are exclusive to newsletters subscribers only. This is our way of thanking them for being a subscriber.

What are the popular brands that one can find on KoreanThings.com?
The popular brands include, but not limited to, The Faceshop, Skinfood, Etude House, Holika Holika, Innisfree, Baviphat, The Saem, Toly Moly, Nature Republic & Missha.

Which Brand(s) from Korea has a lot of demand from your international customers?
Generally brands like Innisfree, The Saem, Etude House, Holika Holika and Too Cool For School are popular with our international customers.

Where are your clients located around the world?
Other than locally in Singapore, we have shipped to USA, Aruba, Australia, Spain, Canada, Finland, France, Poland, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand so far.

Do you get constant requests through out the year or has there been a seasonal trend
Yup, we get constant requests throughout the year. Korean skincare products are hot.

I do hope visitors to our site – Koreanthings.com can try other less known skincare product brands, such as UGB, The History Of Whoo, Tears, Sul Wha Soo, IOPE, Beyond, Lady and Skin and Mamonde… they are a little more expensive but you get what you pay. These brands are of higher quality than the usual more popular selections.