"The Tables Have Turned"... E-commerce Intensifies in 'Excellent Seller' Recruitment War

[Financial News] The e-commerce industry is putting its life on the line to recruit excellent sellers. Fee discounts are basic, and various seller support programs are being promoted to enhance seller convenience, heating up the competition. As competition in the e-commerce industry intensifies, securing excellent sellers is crucial for platform competitiveness.   
According to the industry on the 3rd, the e-commerce industry is increasingly diversifying its seller support programs. The fundamental competitiveness of e-commerce is directly linked to securing many excellent sellers, so they are promoting mutual growth through strong support. 
Recently, Naver has been increasing loyal customers thanks to the lounge membership of Naver Plus Store (Nepeulseu). Since the launch of Nepeulseu, the number of sellers issuing coupons for repeat purchases, loyal customers, and first-time purchases has steadily increased, and the contribution transaction amount in May increased by about 25% compared to the same period last year. Also, the average purchase frequency and purchase conversion rate per visitor of the Nepeulseu app are more than twice as high as before. Nepeulseu, launched in March, is a shopping app that combines AI-based personalized recommendation services with the existing shopping search service. A Naver representative explained, "Through AI shopping recommendations, we are also supporting solutions to help sellers convert loyal customers into repeat customers."
11st has launched a seller-only mobile app '11st Seller Office' last month, which allows everything from product registration to real-time payment confirmation via smartphone, to enhance seller convenience and help boost sales. Recently, they have improved the 'Experience Group Application Process', which allows sellers to distribute their products to customers for marketing purposes, so that more sellers can participate conveniently. In addition, they have introduced a simple seller registration process to reduce the procedures sellers have to enter by more than half and minimize the required documents.
Tmon, which is set to normalize this month after being acquired by Oasis, is also actively recruiting sellers. They plan to introduce the lowest industry-level fees and a next-day settlement system after purchase confirmation. Oasis plans to invest an additional 50 billion won in Tmon, apart from the acquisition amount, to undertake a large-scale system overhaul. However, the response is lukewarm as many sellers suffered from the Tmon incident last year.  
An industry official explained, "From a seller's perspective, even if they pay a lot of fees, they ultimately want to do business on a platform that many consumers use," adding, "It's like wanting to be in a 'prime location' offline, and e-commerce companies are now focusing on practical policies that consider seller convenience rather than simply lowering fees." 
wonder@fnnews.com Jeong Sang-hee Reporter