May marks the peak of spring in South Korea and summer is right around the corner. It is indeed the return of good weather and clear and sunny days. I can finally leave my overheated dorm room to take long walks and have picnics along the Han River. Generally speaking, the spirit is festive, and I feel a vitality and enthusiasm in the air that had been lost during the winter months.

In different times, festivals would be numerous at this time of the year. Many related to nature, which explodes with a thousand colors. And do you know what else is popping with vibrant colors right now? K-Fashion.

I am not fashion-savvy to the least but even I have noticed that there are noticeable trends when it comes to fashion in Seoul and most of them are largely influenced by the season. One little anecdote that perfectly describes this phenomenon is, I remember being at the Sinchon subway station last Fall and being amazed by the number of people wearing trench coats. It was almost like they had planned it. And I remember thinking “so this is what they mean when they say it is ‘trench coat season’!”  So, it is of no surprise that I myself have found myself becoming more aware of what is the rage each season and diving deeper into the world of K-Fashion. And what better place to get a bird eye view of the current trends than browsing through the endless selection of online shops on Naver.

Scrolling through pages and pages of all the latest spring ‘필수템’ (Must-haves), I couldn’t help but think “The competition must be tough!”. With this amount of competition, how do these shops manage to standout and reach potential customers? How do they find the right products to sell? How difficult is it to set up an online clothing shop? Is it really profitable? Needless to say, I had a LOT of questions.  So, I decided to adventure myself to find someone who could answer my questions.

And I happened to get in contact, through a classmate, with two Yonsei University students who are currently co-managing an online clothing shop.

Here is a snippet of our conversation:

“In a highly competitive market, it is sometimes difficult to break through against shops that have been established longer than ours or that have more resources,” they told me. “We then tend to want to lower the prices of our products in the hope of attracting potential customers, which isn’t always the right thing to do.”

This made sense to me. Obviously, price is an important factor that determines how a brand is perceived by customers. It allows businesses to communicate an idea of who they are, their expertise, how they judge their own products and services. Which makes it difficult to appear as having quality products if they are being sold at half the price of competitors’ products.

“Quality has to be paid for and everyone is aware of this, including our customers!”

I then asked them how they manage to stand out from the ocean of clothing online shops operating in South Korea.

They then went on to explain that the key to standing out from the rest is to create a brand identity that sets their shop apart from their competitors.

“It is our differences that set us apart from other shops.” “We have made it a priority to identify our strengths, and what differentiates us from our competitors, and then we focused our communication on these values. We simply made these differences the core of our brand, so that people recognize us for these values. That’s pretty much all that there is to our differentiation strategy.

What about images? Do better product images make a difference?

“Product images are undeniably the object of a competitive advantage,” they responded. “On Naver Shop, for instance, buyers are bombarded with arguments and proposals. Product, price, reviews, and much more. We always assume that a buyer compares our offer with that of our competitors before making a decision. That’s why it’s imperative that our product photos make them want to buy from us.”

How do you do this?

“First, by presenting our products in their best light. No one knows our products better than we do so we have to make sure to present them in a way that gives them justice. Then, by triggering the order checkout as quickly as possible.”

“Really?” I asked. “Is that so that they don’t get time to change their minds?”

“Exactly.”

We all laughed.

Wow, so much information! And this is just snippet of our conversation. I feel like I received a crash course on how to manage online shops. If I ever decide to start an online shop, I now know who to contact.