Gmarket is definitely not part of Google like Gmail. Gmarket came from Korea and made news when acquired by e-commerce giant, eBay, in 2009 for $1.2 billion. In may 2010, eBay and Gmarket founder Young Bae Ku, expanded to Singapore and Japan in joint venture mode where eBay has over 49% ownership. After one year and feeling steady in both countries, in May 2011 Gmarket is expanding again, and this time they’re aiming for Malaysia and Indonesia.

Gmarket in Indonesia is foreign invested, fully controlled by Korea where most people here is sales representatives. This is different than how Rakuten enters Indonesia, by collaborating with MNC in form of joint venture. One of Gmarket plus point in Indonesia for merchant is the choice to linkage with other countries that has Gmarket, except Korea.

This way you can open a store at Gmarket and has the opportunity to expand to countries like Singapore, Japan and Malaysia. Regardless, Desny Tjung as one of reps from Gmarket, recommended market is Singapore because the shipment is easier (and more affordable) than Japan.

On Gmarket, every seller has status referring to its reputation and will define Gmarket’s treatment to the seller. A beginner will be charged for 12% fee on every transaction where payment [on the transaction] will be conducted biweekly. The higher seller level is, the lower the fee and the faster the payment.

The highest status is power seller, determined by the number of positive testimony and the number of goods ordered through Gmarket. No other fee unless the one determined by Gmarket, for all promotion or payment activity. Payment can be done through credit card and PayPal, while Gmarket Indonesia is often use payment formula through debit [via Internet Banking].

Seeing from the looks, Gmarket format, as most East Asia websites may look too fancy and cheesy. “Not cool,” is how Indonesian would say. The fact is in other country, Gmarket has quite a strong market using this look. Isn’t eBay has similar website, full of big images? Let’s see if Gmarket Indonesia can have similar loyal users.

Looking at Gmarket Indonesia’s strategy at the moment, although the market is wide, the first thing they are aiming is Indonesian merchants which have potential to sell their goods to neighboring countries and Indonesian customers who wish to purchase stuffs from other country.

As Desny Tjung explained, Singapore market is potential for purchasing fashion product from Indonesia. It is proven by the number of rejected branded products sold at Factory Outlets in Bandung. Some sells up to 10,000 units/month to Singapore!

Singapore being a small country with not so many people live there, has high buying power. For shipment to Singapore, Gmarket Indonesia collaborates with a courier service to keep their prices low. By their experience for the last one year in South East Asia, fashion product is still number one, however Gmarket also provide other products like beauty, sports, electronic, books and music.

Other than that you can also purchase products sold by other countries through Gmarket with the price converted to IDR. Buying branded shoes from Singapore? Go ahead. Tablet case from Korea? Just a click away. However if you’d like to try it out, read carefully shipping detail and taxation.

E-Commerce market in Indonesia is striving, especially with massive internet penetration.The most important thing to push customers to start using e-Commerce service is by enhancing their trust that the products sold on the net is real both in quality and existence. Testimonial and recommendation will go far for that.