As my previous post stated, I will keep exploring websites to purchase K-Beauty products and this time round I tried Gmarket. What is Gmarket? It is basically like ebay but it is from Korea. Other than cosmetics and skincare, it does sell a wide range of product, from electrical appliances to home deco or even food and so much more (it actually resembles TaoBao a lot).
If to compare with Taobao, the good thing is that you doesnt need an Alipay account nor an agent(which the agent would charge you a certain rate base on the amount you purchase). All you need is a Paypal account(definitely easy to create one) or it works even better if you have credit card. You dont need a middleman in Korea (for the case of Taobao, the middleman is in China) to help you collect all the items and later help you to ship back to your own country. Gmarket has its own warehouse to help you collect all the items you purchased from various seller and later ship to your country.
However, the downside is that, Gmarket only have two options for shipping, which is EMS and SF Express. SF Express is only available for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. Customers from other countries will have no other options but EMS. EMS is very pricey and the rate goes higher and higher according to the weight of your items. The cost of shipping with EMS is the main reason that I have always avoid purchasing from Gmarket because buying only a cushion foundation might have cost me a kg already and the shipping cost goes up ridiculously high with each additional item.
Also not all items are available for international buyers. If the items are not in the international shipping list, then the items are not eligible to ship outside of Korea. If you mistakenly purchase items that are not eligible for international shipping, you cannot ship it back to your country. So always click the international shipping button to check for items that are eligible to ship back to your country.
13 items and I got such a big box. Imagine the shipping cost.
Just like purchasing from TaoBao, Gmarket collected all the items from different sellers and they just put everything into a bigger box. They will not discard the box from the sellers and keep the shipping box small. That is why the weight for the shipping box can go up in an instant with just a few items. When I get the parcel, it was written that the parcel was weight as 3.96kg(freaking heavy for a parcel).
7 small parcel from different sellers inside the big shipping box.
The shipping fee just sounds so scary! But fear not, because now they are having a PROMOTION! Gmarket is now charging a flat rate of ₩5000 (RM18++) regardless how heavy is the parcel.That is the only reason why I dare to order it this time round, else a parcel weight 3.96kg gonna make my wallet bleed! This promotion is gonna last till 31st May 2016 and after that they will charge according to weight again. So anyone wanna try grabbing things from Gmarket, please act fast! Though this promotion is only applicable to Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
About the website, although it is in English/Chinese, but not all products description are in English. Most of the items' description are in Korean, even the options given to choose before adding to cart are also in Korean. If you doesnt understand a single Korean word, then you will be having a really hard time to google what are the items available in the options given(here comes google translate to the rescue).
Other than the language issue, the platform, the efficiency and the system are fairly good and easy to navigate. Gmarket has an attendance check list (or lucky draw) which you can spin to earn points and stamps (or even coupon) which it can be handy if you collect enough points or stamps. Gmarket often distributes coupons which can make your purchase cheaper if you fulfill the t&c of the coupons.
Now lets check at the timeline:
Order placed: 31st March
Confirmed payment made: 31st March
Parcel shipped from Korea: 5th April
Parcel received in Malaysia: 12th April
Move on to the items that I have purchased.
13 different items from 6 sellers.
Breaking down the items according to the seller:
Seller account: ♡비아로사♡
Item purchased (from bottom row, left to right):
1. BBIA Soft Gentle Lip and Eye Remover 100ml ￦ 3,500
2. EGLIPS Ez Quick Lip and Eye Remover 100ml ￦ 3,500
3. BBIA Auto Eyeliner V1.Brownie ￦ 4,300
4. BBIA Last Pen Eyeliner 02 Sharpen Brown ￦ 4,800
5. BBIA Last Pen Eyeliner 01 Sharpen Black ￦ 4,800
6. EGLIPS Pact Puff ￦ 500
7. Sample Masks (Upper Row) NIL
Seller account: (주)아모레퍼시픽
Item purchased (from upper row, left to right):
1. Mamonde Rose Water Toner 150ml X2 ￦ 7,800
2. Mamonde Creamy Tint Intense Lip Balm #16 Velvet Red ￦ 6,300
3. Mamonde Ultra Mositure Sample Pack X2 (bottom row) NIL
Seller account: 예쁘데이
Item purchased (from left to right):
1. Mamonde Cover Powder Cushion #23 ￦ 15,700
2. Aritaum Full Cover Concealer Stick #02 ￦ 4,200
Seller account:뷰티여우
Item purchased :
1. Aritaum Air Cushion Puff X10 ￦ 12,400
Seller account:♥달의향기♥
Item purchased (from upper row to bottom row) :
1. The SAEM Healing GreenTea Cleansing Water 300ml X3 ￦ 13,140
(The price is after 10% discount using Gmarket coupon)
2. Sample Mask NIL
Seller account: 뷰티폴스킨
Item purchased:
1. Hera UV Mist Cushion Ultra Moisture #23 ￦ 18,740
(The price is after 20% discount using Gmarket coupon)
EMS shipping fee (flat rate): ￦ 5,000
(Promotion on EMS, until 31st May 2016)
Total: ￦ 104,680 (Include some domestic shipping for certain seller that does not offer free domestic shipping)
Conclusion:
Pros:
1. Huge variety of items.
2. Different sellers may offer different discounts. May get better deal if spend more time to check on different sellers.
3. Gmarket offers coupons from time to time.
4. Fast shipping.
5. Fresh manufacture items.
6. Fast and helpful response from Gmarket team when you have any inquiry.
Cons:
1. Language used in product description and options are in korean. It will be very hard for buyers to understand if they do not know how to read korean.
2. Shipping fee is very costly when there is not promotion on shipping fee.
3. Less shipping method to be choose.
Rating: 4.6/5
Repurchase? Yes, whenever the shipping fee is on promotion, else I wont because the shipping fee might cost even higher than the items I purchased.
- 11:15
- 19 Comments
