Gmarket is a Korean online auction and shopping mall website, very similar to eBay. The only difference is that the prices are fixed. There are no bidding wars and you can’t lose an auction at the very last second. Everytime I visit Gmarket there are a billion things that I would want to buy, so after much contemplating I decided to go ahead and place my first order a couple weeks ago.

1. Navigate Gmarket
To navigate around Gmarket I used Google Chrome because it has a built-in translator. This way it was easy to translate whole pages and I wouldn’t get so lost. The thing is though, a lot of sellers (maybe all sellers as far as I can see) use pictures in their descriptions. Pictures don’t get translated – obviously. The official Etude House store has every product listed separately, but there are stores that have a lot of options or different products in one listing. This way you get a whole drop-down list and if you can’t read Korean (I can’t), it gets really confusing. It kind of feels like playing memory, lol. Because of that, having a built-in translator is really handy.

Finding products means you’ll have to know the Korean spelling. Because I can’t read, type or speak Korean I did a bit of research and found these sites very helpful: Lotus Palace & Bijinblair.

For my first order I decided to only use the official Etude House seller (etudegmark) to avoid fake products and see how everything goes.

2. Ordering & shipping
Ordering wasn’t really all that difficult when you have that translator. It’s pretty self explanatory. While you fill in your information you’ll also get a shipping estimate. These costs are actually quite high, almost half of your total amount. I had to pay ￦34,100, which equals to $33.18.

After a week or so, I checked into my account and saw that I had to pay extra shipping, which was another $10 ($9,44 to be exact). That is $42,62! Just for shipping alone. That was kind of a bummer. Also, I didn’t get a notification or anything. If I hadn’t checked my account I would have missed it and maybe then my order was canceled.

3. The shipment
About two weeks or so after my order was shipped out, the postal guy arrived at my doorstep. I had to pay an extra whooping €22 ($30) for customs declaration! That kind of sucked. That means I had to pay a total of $72.62 for shipping. Insane, right?

Although the insane shipping costs was a bummer, I do have to say that the package was nicely packed. All the items were bubble wrapped and I actually got some freebies. Which was nice considering I was pretty disappointed with the whole experience. But that was pretty much the only good thing, I guess.

4. The products
I’m happy with the products that I’ve ordered, but I think it’s better to use Gmarket only when there’s something exclusive that I can’t find on eBay. Especially when it comes to Etude House. Most products are sold on eBay for the same price, maybe just a tad bit more. But when it comes to shipping, most of these listing have free shipping and I have never had to pay customs declarations with eBay packages *knocks on wood*.

Want to check out Gmarket for yourself? There’s an English version available but most listings are still in Korean language. Use a built-in translator in your internet browser to make it more easier to browse.

Have you ever shopped at Gmarket? If so, what was your experience with the Korean equivalent of eBay?

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