The Gmarket, South Korea’s leading Internet retailer, opened shopping malls for social enterprises
“Go to the Gmarket and purchase the products of social enterprises”
The Work Together Foundation and G market reached a business agreement on the 23rd of July in order to support social enterprises. Next, they plan to go into business with a type of “mall within a mall,” kicking off sales beginning in August.
Social enterprises will put food, clothes, daily and office commodities, and services on the market. Beginning in August with the opening of products for summer vacation, social enterprises plan to display about 10 units each month based on a themed strategy, including gift sets for Chuseok*.
From left to right side: JANG Ui-Sung (Director of the Employment Services Bureau of the Ministry of Labor), LEE Kwang-Taek (Executive Director of the Work Together Foundation), KU Young-Bae (CEO of Gmarket), and SIN young-Chul (Secretary-General of the Employment Policy Office of the Ministry of Labor).
The Gmarket, the Work Together Foundation, and the Ministry of Labor made a business agreement for backups for social enterprises at the headquarters of G market.
Gmarket is determined to help improve social enterprises’ lack of professional skills in marketing as well as improve distribution fields. Following this, they plan on starting a backup- project for social enterprises by catalyzing and promoting ethical consumption. The project is co-organized by SONG Wol-Joo, Chairman of the Work Together Foundation and LEE Young-Hee, Minister of Labor.
The foundation will attempt to raise awareness of social enterprises through the professional marketing and promotion of Gmarket. This will be accompanied by plans to support social enterprises by setting up their own on-line marketing strategies and quality management, as well as a distribution system with multilateral cooperation from the ministry of labor and corporate sponsors.
Gmarket is the first internet shopping mall company within Korea to have established a backup-project for helping social enterprises with an on-line distribution network.
* Chuseok, originally known as Hangawi (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it's held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok]
Translated by PARK Sang-Oh
Edited by Tyler Hollinger