Welcome to my Gmarket “How-to Guide”. This is for any
interested international buyers who are thinking of ordering on the website but
are confused about the website. Hopefully my guide will be able to maneuver you
through your Gmarket experience! If you have any other questions which I haven’t covered in this guide, feel free
to leave a comment with your question and I will try to answer the question or
direct you to the answer as much as possible.
NOTE: All the
information I have provided in this guide is based on my personal experience on
Gmarket, I am not covering every single aspect of the entire website as I am no
pro master about Gmarket but I will try to cover as much as I am capable of. Please be mindful that the information I provide in this guide may not be 100% accurate. I will be updating this guide with more
information if possible.
Let’s get started. I have broken down this guide into
different categories for organizational purposes and so you can easily found
info for a specific category.
Categories in
order:
1. Gmarket
Basics
2. Gmarket
account
3. Browsing
4. Ordering (Cancelation/Exchange)
5. Shipping / Tracking
6. Gmarket
Customer Service
(I suggest you use Ctrl + F to find exactly the category
you would like to read so you don’t have to scan the entire guide in order to
find the category you want to view).
1. Gmarket
Basics
Gmarket is a subsidiary of eBay Korea. Does eBay sound
familiar to anyone? Gmarket is basically the same format as eBay, it is an
online massive shopping center. For those who are unaware of how this “shopping
center” works, let me try to explain to you in the simplest terms. Imagine the
website of a shopping mall you would go to in person. Inside that shopping
mall, there are multiple stores from a variety of retailers. Gmarket is
basically like a mall except it is online! Sellers (just like the different
stores in a mall) open up a “mini homepage” on Gmarket where they can sell
their products online to the entire globe. Gmarket itself is not the one
offering the products on their website; Gmarket is providing the platform (or
mall) for sellers (stores) to offer their products through the Internet.
2. Gmarket account
Before you can make a purchase on Gmarket, you need to
create a Gmarket account. Registering for an account is simple and free! First
go to
http://english.gmarket.co.kr/ Then at the top right side of the screen,
click on the word “Register”
You will then be taken to a page where you can fill in
your information. After you hit “Submit” (currently mistyped on Gmarket as
“Sumit”) on the registration page, you will be sent an email in order to
complete your account registration.
This is what your email will look like. Congratulations!
You have completed you Gmarket registration! With this account, you can do
anything now, well I mean ordering on Gmarket of course.
Now it is time to log into your Gmarket account! The
“Sign In” button is right beside the word “Register”.
Awesome now you are in your Gmarket account! Now I would
like to discuss the different tabs under “My Gmarket” to access the different
part of your Gmarket account.
The first tab in the “MyGmarket” drop down menu is
Shopping List. The Shopping List allows you access to all your order(s)’ information, your most recent one, the one
before that, and the list goes on.
This is the main tab for “Shopping List”. As you can see,
there are different tabs. These tabs allow you to sort through all your orders
based on the condition you selected such as Recent. The ones that you will
probably use is “Recent Order” after you have made your order to track your
order. Another other tab you may possibly use is “Cancel/Return/Exchange” which
I will be going in detail about in the “Orders” category. And lastly, you might
use “Worldwide Shipping order” especially if you have made two orders and both
haven’t been shipped yet, you can request combined shipping for the two orders
in this tab.
This is the view under “Recent order”
As you can see, there are multiple columns. I have color
highlighted each different column so it may be easier for you to identify the
different columns.
Red = It states the date
you have made an order and also the order number accompanying an order. The
order number can be come in handy if you need to contact Gmarket’s customer’s
service regarding your order, which will be discussed in the “Gmarket Customer
Service” category.
Pink = There are “View
Info” buttons that when clicked, there will be a pop-up window that allows you
to view the information about each seller of any products in your order,
including their phone number and email address. There will also be a button on
the pop-up window named “Inquire to Seller” that allows you to send a message
to the seller through Gmarket.
Blue = This is the information of the different products
you have within an order. The “Item” column states the name of the product you
purchased, “Qty” states how much of the product you ordered and “Payment”
states the total price of the product(s).
Green = For international orders, the products have to be
shipped to Gmarket’s warehouse first. This column shows you the status of each
product and if it is delivered to the warehouse or not. The words “Domestic
Delivered” means that the product has shipped from the seller to Gmarket’s
warehouse.
Yellow = The “Remarks” columns shows you the comments you
have sent to the seller when you placed your order.
Brown = The “View Receipt” button shows you the complete
receipt of your entire order in a pop-up window, including all the products in
your order, the total cost of your order.
Black = For international orders, the column is important.
Clicking the green button written “Tracking” allows you to track the shipment
of your entire order, after all the individual products have been shipped to
Gmarket’s warehouse.
Alright, this wraps up the “Shopping List” tab.
The next tab under “My Gmarket” that is very useful is
“Gaccount”.
Under this “Gaccount” tab, you will be able to
information about how much Gmilage, Gcash, etc you have.
As you can see, there are multiple boxes. I have color
highlighted each different box so it may be easier for you to identify the
different boxes.
Red = Gmileage are like “points” you can exchange into
Gcash (Cash Balance in the picture).
Purple = Gcash is basically Gmarket’s own cash
system. Sometimes, if you paid too much
for shipping, Gmarket will calculate the overage and add it into your Cash
Balance. You can convert your “Cash Balance” back into actual cash in your
credit card or PayPal (however Gmarket charges a fee for doing so). Vice versa,
if you paid too little for shipping, Gmarket will deduct the require amount
from your Cash Balance. Cash Balance can also be used to pay for orders. Cash
Balance can also be purchased directly (in case you need to pay for shipping
and you have nothing in your Cash Balance.
Blue = Gift Certificates can be used as a method of
payment for your orders.
Green = Coupons offer discounts for product prices.
(Coupons are from Gmarket)
Yellow = Gstamp can be used towards discount coupons.
Pink = This is your "money history" on Gmarket. It shows details about gcash you have converted back onto your credit card or PayPal, the payments you have made for your orders and prizes you may have received from a Gmarket event.
NOTE: Gmileage and
Gstamp can be earned in the Plus Zone.
This ends the “Gaccount” tab.
The “Wish List” tab takes you to a page where all your
wish list items can be viewed, deleted or moved to your shopping cart. The
“Coupon” tab opens a pop-up window which shows you all the coupons you have and
the category (ies) of products you coupon is applicable for. The “Favorite
Shop” tab is currently unavailable for use.
This ends the “Gmarket account” category.
3. Browsing
Gmarket is HUGE. It sells everything from clothing to
stationery to food! In order to find the products for you, click on the “All
Categories” tab at the top left corner.
As you can see, there are so many different categories!
I have highlighted the different parts in different
colors. This way, it will be easier for you to identify which part of the page
I am explaining.
Red = There are two check boxes at the top of every
search page, one is “Worldwide Shipping” and another one is “Free Domestic
Shipping”. If you select “Worldwide Shipping”, all the product results are
available for international shipping; sadly some products are restricted to be
shipped only within Korea. If you select “Free Domestic Shipping”, the cost of
shipping a product from the seller to Gmarket’s warehouse is free!
Pink Box = All the products that have this pink button
with the words “Worldwide shipping” state that international buyers can
purchase this product. Make sure the products you would like to buy are
eligible for international shipping!
Purple = The price column states two or three things. The
cost of a product is first listed in Won, which is the currency of South Korea.
Underneath the price in Won in brackets, is the price listed in USD. The price
in red is the amount of discount price subtracted from the original price of
the product for products on sale. NOTE:
If you do not live in US, don’t worry about the price being in USD, upon
payment, you will be charged in your currency for your order’s total converted
from USD.
Blue = This column states the cost of shipping of the
products from the seller to Gmarket’s warehouse (for international orders).
Some sellers ship for free, some charge a fee, and some ship for free under
certain buy conditions such as purchasing at least a certain amount from the
seller.
Green = This column indicates any special offers the
seller is offering. The special offers that could be listed include “Discount”
which means there is a discount in the product’s price, “Gift” which means the
seller will include a free gift with product purchase, Gstamp and Gmileage.
Yellow = It lists the seller you are buying from. Clicking
on the seller’s name bring your to their “homepage” on Gmarket where you can
find all the products a certain seller is selling. The word “Power” means that
this seller sells A LOT and is efficient with their service.
Orange = This column shows you the product rating in a
scale of 5 “bars”. This rating is based on reviews left by previous customers
who have purchased the product.
This concludes the “Browsing” category.
4. Ordering
Now that you have
had time to browse around the website, you have saw products you would like to
order! Well, the first step in ordering is adding all the products you would
like to order into your shopping cart. This is how you add the item into your “Shopping Cart” for check
out. You will need to open the product page of the item you would like to
order.
Alright, let’s say this is a lip balm/ lip maximizer
(think lip maximizer means lip plumper) that I want to order. There are
different things to look at, so like always, I have color blocked each part so
you can follow along and understand each part.
Red = This is the pricing of the item. If the item like
this lip balm is on sale, the price section will include the original price,
the discount amount, and the item’s price after the discount amount. There is
also a red button worded “Coupon Box”. Clicking this box will open a pop-window
where you can apply any applicable coupons you have for this product to bring
down the item’s price ever more!
Purple = This indicates the delivery fee (if any) that
you have to pay for the seller to ship the item to the Gmarket warehouse.
Blue = A lot of product pages contain more than just one
specific item for sale. For example, this lip balm comes in different shades.
The drop down menu allows you to make a certain product selection, for example
I would select a certain shade of the lip I want in this drop down menu.
Green = Some items have an additional option to purchase
secondary items with the main item. For example, the additional option for this
lip balm was a pack of makeup sponges for an additional 1000 won on top of the
lip balm price. This “Additional Option” is set to “None” by default. You can
select from this drop down menu if you would like to purchase any secondary
items listed.
Yellow = There are two button, “Inquiry” and “Seller
Info”. Clicking the “Inquiry” button allows you to message the item’s seller
through Gmarket. Clicking the “Seller Info” will open a pop-up window with the
seller’s info such as phone number and email address.
Orange = After making your item selection in the blue part
(and green), click on the “Add to Cart” button to place the product into your
“Shopping Cart”. There is a “Buy Now” button however, since we are
international buyers, we should be making an order of multiple items and paying
shipping fee once.
Tip: I find with most sellers, their product page isn't in English. In this case, it could be quite difficult sometimes to make a product selection. I would HIGHLY recommend you use a translator, perhaps you have a friend fluent in Hangul (Korean language) to help you translate or you can use a translator (I use Google translator myself), translator may not be accurate but they are definitely better than you trying to guess.
Now that you have placed all the items you would like in
your “Shopping Cart”, proceed to the “Shopping Cart” page for check out!
You can go to your “Shopping Cart” by clicking the word
at the top right corner of the webpage.
By now, you know what the color boxes in the picture
means right? Haha. Coloring boxing things makes it easier for you to follow, I
hope!
Red = Since we are international buyers, make sure you
are looking at the “Overseas” tab in your “Shopping Cart”.
Yellow = In case you want to leave a message for a
certain product’s seller, you can do so by clicking the “Memo” button.
Green = In the case of a product page that contains a
group of certain products (such as a lip balm with a selection of shades), the
complete detailed information will be listed under the “main” product name
(such as the name of the lip balm collection). Also, any order “Additional
Selection” you have selected in the product page before will be listed here as
well.
Purple = This indicates the estimated weight of the product by the seller. Your product will be
weighed when it arrives to Gmarket’s warehouse. Shipping internationally (for
most countries) are based on how much weight your order weighs, this will be
further discussed in “Shipping/Tracking” category.
Orange = This shows the price of the product after any
coupons & discounts have been factored in, you can click on the
“Delete” button to remove a product from
your shopping cart.
Blue = The delivery fee is the fee the seller may charge
you to ship the product from them to Gmarket’s warehouse. As you can see in the
example, one product has free delivery fee while another product is charged
2,500 won for delivery to the warehouse.
Once you doubled check your shopping cart and finalized
all the products you would like to buy. It is time to scroll down to calculate
the total estimated shipping you will have
to pay for your order and calculate the total price you will have to buy for
your order and shipping.
You can see the colored boxes, you know the drill! Time
to match each color to the description below!
Blue = The total shipping fee you must pay for your
order, this includes the shipping fee you must pay for international shipping
to your address plus any delivery fee you must pay the seller to ship a product
to Gmarket’s warehouse.
Red = The total price for your order, the price of the
products and the total shipping fee. The total is first listed in won and then
listed in USD amount in brackets below.
Purple = This drop down menu allows you to select your
country for shipping, different countries result in different shipping
fees. This is further discussed in
“Shipping/Tracking” category.
Green = This indicates how much your order weighs and how
much your international shipping fee is.
Yellow = This list shows your how much gmileage, gstamps,
and book cash you have, all three can be used to reduce the total price of your
order.
Orange = After selecting your country for shipping and
looking over at the cost of your order, click the “Place an Order” button to
proceed to the payment page.
After clicking “Place an Order”, you will now be taken to
the “Payment” page. The first portion of the page shows you again the list of
all the products you want to order. The second portion is “Delivery Info” where
you fill out your contact information, the address you would like the order to
be shipped to. Remember to click the check box at the end to say you agree with
the policy!
I want to explain part 3 and 4 of the “Payment” page more
detail so I have color blocked this photo above. In order to decipher the
colors, you have to reference to the color legend below.
Red = You can use your cash balance, mileage and book
cash to further reduce the total cost of your order.
Purple = This section indicates the gmilage and gstamps
you will receive once your order has been processed, these beenfits are
offered by the sellers you are purchasing from for your order.
Blue = Being international customers, we must select the
“Foreign Credit Card” or “Paypal” in order to pay. If you are using the credit card method, you will have to
list the card type you have (Visa, Mastercard, etc) and then go through a card
processing which will appear in a pop-up window. Make sure to check the box to
agree to the credit card use agreement.
UPDATE: Foreign currency exchange rates are more favorable compared to Paypal.
Green = Once you have filled in all the required
information for all four sections of
the “Payment” page, you can click “Pay” to process your order!
Once all the products from the different sellers have
arrived to Gmarket’s warehouse and your package has been weighed, it will be
shipped. You will get an email notification of when your order has shipped.
So yeah, that is the entire ordering process.
This following small section is about
refunds/returns/exchanges. This is for
if you happen to want to return/exchange your product or you would like to
cancel your order (after you placed it but before it is shipped).
The first step is to go to “My Gmarket” (top right hand
corner).
Then click on the “Cancel/Exchange” tab. Under this tab,
you can select the order/product in an order you will like to cancel or
exchange the products in your order (given that your order has not been shipped
yet. Once you have canceled your order/a product in an order, the money you
have originally paid for your order will be placed in your gcash (unless you
exchange it back into your credit card or PaylPal account with a service fee).
If you decide to cancel a product/order once the seller has delivered it to the
warehouse, you must pay a shipping fee for it to be redelivered back to the
seller. If your order is shipped out of the warehouse, you may not
exchange/cancel your order at this point. If you really want to cancel/exchange
a product/order, I suggest you do it ASAP
before the sellers send your product(s) to Gmarket’s warehouse to avoid any
additional fees.
5. Shipping / Tracking
The only mailing service Gmarket uses is EMS. EMS stands
for Express Mail Service. This is not a separate mail service like DHL or UPS.
Express Mail Service is part of the country’s own mail service, which in the
case of Gmarket is Korea Post. Express Mail Service is fast shipping with
tracking (even when the order has arrived in your country!) however it is quite
expensive to use. The cost of EMS
shipping for your order depends on how much your order weights and which
country you live in. The larger your order is, the more you would have to pay
for shipping! Gmarket states that for international shipping, shipping can take
2-10 business days for your package to arrive to you.
Tip: I would
HIGHLY recommend you try to buy as much as possible in one order or buy with
your friends/enemies/relatives/neighbours/coworkers. This will make your order
worth it unless you are fine paying around $20 in shipping for one single item
that only costs a faction of the shipping cost! Sure the more you order,
shipping fee also becomes more, however, once the weight of your order goes
over a certain weight (in kg), the shipping cost per kg decreases which in
return reduces the shipping cost per item in your order.
Tip #2: Make
sure your order contains only items which are allowed entry into your country.
Different countries have different import regulations, make sure to check your
country’s government website on parcels before you place an order or else
customs will detain your package!
This following section is how to track your package once
it has been shipped. Go to the “Shopping List” page under “My Gmarket”, find
your order, and click on the “Tracking” button.
A new pop-up window will appear with your package’s
shipping information.
This is the conclusion of the “Shipping/Tracking” category.
Step 6: Gmarket
Customer Service
In the case where you have a specific question, there
might be an answer in Gmarket’s Customer Service. To access “Customer Service”
homepage, click “Help” in the top right corner. Don’t worry; as long as you are
on the English version of Gmarket, everything in Customer Service is also in
English!
In case you would like to ask a specific question to
Gmarket (perhaps regarding your order with your order number), you can send
them an email or send them a message (by clicking the word HERE shown in the picture). If you choose to send them a message, you will
be brought to another page to fill in your inquiry. After you have submitted
your inquiry, you will get an email notification with Gmarket staff’s response
to your inquiry.
Whew! This guide is extremely long! I can’t believe I
have managed to type this all in one sitting, one VERY VERY VERY long non-continuous sitting with breaks of course,
this girl is human after all!
I would like to thank you for reading my how-to guide and
hopefully you found it helpful. If you spot any mistakes throughout my guide which is practically an essay by now,
sadly yes my writing and grammar skills are lacking, please let me know and I
will correct it! For any more questions, leave a comment and I will get back to
it!
Till next blog,
Kitty
