I’ve shopped from Gmarket Korea quite a few times in the past two years, and finally I’ve decided to share a full review and guide to shopping with them – simply because shopping online from Gmarket is such a wonderful and pleasant experience. Here are some Q&As on Gmarket based on my experience with online shopping:
Q. What’s the quality of items sold on Gmarket?
A. Gmarket’s clothes, bags, and shoes are generally well-made, similar to those of Charles & Keith or Mango. What you see is truly what you get (while Taiwan/China bags only look good on screen and the actual items are severely disappointing). The prices are definitely more expensive than Taobao or Yahoo! TW, but still cheaper than what you’d pay locally for a similar quality item.
Q. Are the items trendy? Do they have a wide range?
A. Absolutely. Korean fashion is extremely popular among youths these days, and there is a huge range of products available from thousands of sellers. For my latest haul, I spent SIX straight hours shopping and that doesn’t include the intermittent browsing I did a few days before I ordered!
What’s more, Gmarket doesn’t just sell clothes and accessories. It’s a superstore, just like Amazon and Taobao – you can get electronics, cosmetics, furniture, home decor, appliances, toys, stationery…all at unbelievably affordable prices!
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| Etude House lip concealer, lipstick, eyebrow pencil, and masks + free sample pack! Etude House products are A LOT cheaper in Korea… |
Q. What’s the shopping and shipping experience like?
A. Gmarket has created a smoothly integrated process for overseas orders, such that you can just add items from all the various sellers into your cart. Gmarket will handle the local shipping from sellers and pack everything into one box. Shipping is about 20% of your order if you purchase US$100 of products (all products are shown in KRW and USD).
Although the site is very user-friendly with instructions and navigation in English, seller and item pages can be tough to browse as they are mostly in Korean. You have to look for the matching characters when selecting color and design. If all else fails, email customer support – they’re pretty helpful =)
My haul!
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| The huge box. Considered small as I’d wanted to order more stuff! The EMS shipping is cheap, fast (10 days), and comes with detailed tracking. They even give you the flight number to check! |
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| The Gmarket sellers really package everything neatly. My wall decal had a box of its own, and the Etude House cosmetics were individually swathed in bubble wrap :P |
Tada! Three bags, a bag organizer, a wall decal set, and Etude House goodies. I’d wanted to get shirts for the BF (great quality) but all the designs/sizes I wanted were out of stock ㅠ.ㅠ And I forgot to get my 2011 planner. This calls for another Gmarket shopping spree!
The blue-grey synthetic leather bag feels luxe. And I’m ohh so tempted to go traveling with my chic new travel bag!
I hope my post has helped answer some questions about shopping online from Gmarket Korea – and gotten you addicted! If you’re curious about which sellers I buy from, or if you have any questions or experiences, just drop me a note in the comments.
Hey, thanks for the post, I was planning to also buy form gmarket (first time!) and was wondering which seller you bought the bags from? thanks=D
Hi becca, I bought the two handbags from this store called Apple Bag and the travel holdall from here. However there are tons of different sellers offering the cheapest price for each bag design, so do take your time to browse. Enjoy shopping!
Hello,
I have found your site by looking up info about gmarket. I never used it before.I would like to but I read that shipping is expensive if sent to US. Is it really worth buying from there? I mean they do have cute clothes and good priced stuff on gmarket but the shipping is a buzzkill. I have been on the korean gmarket but I usually go to the singaporean one.It have alot more english on the site. By the way you have a nice site.
Hi Chelly, thanks for the compliment!
I really do think it’s worth it as most of their products are of great quality (unlike those from Taiwan or China), and the low price makes up for the shipping cost. Unfortunately shipping to the US is definitely more expensive since it’s further away, so you might want to consider bulk ordering with a bunch of friends to make the shipping per item more worth it.
I’ve never used Gmarket Singapore as it just seems to be reselling items bought from Gmarket Korea at a marked-up price. I know some Korean so it’s a little easier for me, but Google Translate is your friend :)
Hi Andrea,
Thank for sharing your experience. It’s really useful while I was about to give up my search on shipping information in gmarket korea. I tried to google some guide on how to purchase from gmarket korea and I came across your page which made me glad =)
Can you please advise how to ask seller ship by DPD instead of EMS? Because I found out their overseas shipping fee guide is from EMS. Is there any way for us to find out DPD shipping fee guide?
Thank you ^^
Hi Tina, the DPD shipping option actually appears when you’re completing your entire overseas order (a radio button together with the EMS shipping option), not when you’re adding individual sellers’ items to your cart. The rest of the process is the same as with EMS, except it’s slightly cheaper and you get more detailed order tracking. Hope that helps!
Hey Andrea,
Thanks for sharing the post. I just have a few questions regarding Gmarket. Is there a way we can add more items into the shopping cart because I think the maximum limit is 30 items and since do they refund the shipping fee if they have charged extra? Does this shipping fee consist of that international shipping fee? It’s a lot for the shipping fee, but I guess it’s cause it’s all the way from Korea. Thanks for all your help!
Hi Cindy, I had no idea about the limit but yes, they refund the shipping fee if the actual shipping is lower than what you’ve paid. However, the amount is refunded as Gcash in your Gaccount, not as a direct refund to you. Yes, the shipping will be to your doorstep :)
Hi,
Do you know if I can order and have it delivered to my hotel room.
Hi Alex, yes you can. Of course you have to be staying there long enough!
Hi, i stumbled across your page hoping to find an answer. I recently purchased some products from gmarket and used my visa to pay for the products. However, the total amount still hasn’t been charged on my visa. So i was wondering, do you know when they would charge the amount on my visa or if it is because i’ve made a mistake. Thank you!
Hi Jess, I believe the amount is charged only after the items have left Gmarket and are being shipped to you so it might not reflect on your statement till later. HTH!
Hi Andrea,
I was searching on shipping info from korean Gmarket and your review was pretty enlightening!
Would like to find out if it’s also possible to buy from sellers that do not indicate overseas shipping on their page? I wanted to buy some korean skincare products (Etude, Nature Republic) but i’m unsure if they actually ship to singapore… which seller do you normally buy your Etude items from? Also, is there a min. required spending for overseas shipping from Korea?
Do Share!
Thanks so much =)
Hi Lydia! International buyers can only order from sellers that indicate overseas shipping so if they don’t, it means you can’t buy from them :( Not sure about Nature Republic but sadly, Etude has recently blocked shipping to Singapore (I guess to protect the local Etude stores). They only ship to certain countries now and Singapore is not one of them.
Nope, there’s no minimum spend for shipping overseas but of course, it’s always good to buy more to have lower shipping cost per item. Cheers!
Hi,
i tried using FireFox, & I.E.
i cant seem to purchase my list of item from my shopping cart. ‘place an order’ button doesn’t seems to work.
is there something i have missed out to proceed?
its my 1st time buying from G-market Korea. it so confusing..
i even checked with their cust sv. they mention, only I.E ver 7 can use, which is kinda old version for now to use.
Firefox works well in G-market SG, more simple.
i hope you can help me.
is there something i have missed out to proceed from my shopping cart?
Hi minoko, I recommend using IE9 as I’m having no problems with it. The site is buggy on Firefox/Chrome.
Do make sure you’ve filled in all the details for shipping (including your own name for Sender Name) and selected your country for them to calculate the shipping costs. HTH!
Hey there,
I’m new to Gmarket. I would like to purchase from Gmarket Korea. Would you recommend buying from Gmarket sprees or the website itself? In terms of cheaper overall cost. Thanks (:
Hi Belle, I usually shop Gmarket alone or with family as there’s so much to buy!
A good purchase cost to shipping cost ratio I have figured out is 5:1 e.g. if you buy 120,000won worth of items, a shipping cost of ~24,000 won is good (the actual shipping cost is usually lower). If your ratio is less than 5:1 then it’s not worth ordering alone. Hope that helps!
I absolutely adore reading your blog posts, the variety of writing is smashing.
This blog as usual was educational, I have had to bookmark your site and subscribe to your feed in i feed.
Your theme looks lovely.Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Sharon, glad you find it useful :)
hi! i always want to order thing from gmarket but it looks so complicated, i have a question
if i pay my order with paypal, and what if the estimate shipping fee come out that less than the real shipping fee, and they want me to pay more, how can i do that? i meant am i still able to pay them by paypal or i need to have money in Gmarket account stuff. ^^! thanks
Yes you’ll still be able to pay by PayPal :) But the actual shipping will almost always be less than the estimated and the extra will be credited to your G Account, which you can use to pay for future purchases.
This is so helpful. I made a purchase a month ago after reading bloggers’ experiences, but when I bought from Etude House’s minishop, I did not get any free samples when every claims that they are extremely generous with samples… T__T
I am planning to make another purchase, am I supposed to do anything else to get the samples?
And I always see every product listed twice, is there any difference? >.<
@Vicki Usually, at the beginning of the more popular items’ pages, they’ll have an image indicating the freebies they’re giving away. The amount of samples they give depends on your total purchase amount with them. E.g. this is their current free-gift-with-purchase promo:
[10,000-20,000won] [20,000-30,000won] [30,000-50,000won] [50,000won & above]
And the double listings is just for more visibility, there’s no difference in the items. HTH :)
Hi All,
i bought 3 bags from two different sellers/. The services and shipment are excellent, however the color of the items are much different than those shown in the website – all comparatively darker and not as good. Need to be careful when shopping online.
Thanks Chen for your advice. I agree – for Gmarket, I try to look at photos of the same item from different sellers.
owh dear, your explanation is amazing, so clear!!
i’m glad that i found your website, and i’m planning to spend some money at gmarket,
so now, to buy at gmarket, i can use paypal right? ehm other than that? because i dont have paypal actually, what about western union? this is first time i wanna buy things from other country, hehhe next, some of your comments means that, i need to buy a lots from gmarket to have low cost of shipping yea? tq in advance dear
Hi Zayya, PayPal is actually the most convenient option and it’s easy to set up a PayPal account. However, Gmarket also accepts foreign credit cards. And yes, the more you buy, the more cost-effective the shipping becomes. So do get your friends to buy with you :)