'MZ Marketer and Overseas Sales Veteran' Supporting Small Business Export... KOTRA Project

Supporting Digital Exports for 270 Small Businesses Through Global B2B Platform

Yuntae Kim, Head of KOTRA Small and Medium Business Division (third from left), presents commemorative towels at the project launch ceremony with small business owners, KOTRA digital export specialists, and digital marketers. (Photo by KOTRA)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] KOTRA announced on the 28th that it is launching the 'Small Business Owners Onmaeum Export Project' to support small business owners who suffered severe damage from COVID-19 in expanding overseas by utilizing a global B2B (business-to-business) platform.

The project kickoff event was held on the same day at KOTRA headquarters' international conference hall. Attendees included the three pillars of the project: small business owner companies, KOTRA's 'Digital Export Specialists,' and university student 'Digital Marketers.'

Through the project, 270 small business owners in cosmetics, food, and daily consumer goods will sell their products via the global B2B platform 'Alibaba.com.' Alibaba.com is a platform with 34 million buyers worldwide.

After joining, university student marketers will conduct SNS (social networking service) marketing targeting the global market for small business owner products. Digital export specialists will facilitate transactions with overseas buyers newly attracted to the Alibaba.com page. These export specialists are retired trade experts aged 60 or older with over 15 years of overseas sales experience in large corporations and general trading companies. They plan to closely support the export activities of small business owner companies by leveraging their experience and networks from working in overseas sales departments and overseas subsidiaries.

The young digital marketers consist of 50 university students with content creation experience and foreign language skills including English, Japanese, Mongolian, and Indonesian. They create digital content to promote small business owner products overseas with the unique youthful sensibility of the MZ generation. Using this content, they plan influencer promotions and live commerce activities. During the activity period, KOTRA will also provide capacity-building education to help students grow further as global marketers.

KOTRA and Alibaba.com will support advertising such as product keyword optimization and premium product exposure to help small business owners participating in this project export as much as possible. Furthermore, based on cooperation with Samsung SDS, when companies proceed with shipments through the digital logistics platform 'Cello Square,' the entire process from logistics cost estimation to tracking will be transparently provided, along with logistics support and logistics-related consulting.

Kim Yuntae, head of KOTRA's Small and Medium Enterprises Division, said, "The project is a business model that helps Korea's excellent small business owners leap into global companies and helps our youth grow as digital trade personnel," adding, "Starting with Alibaba.com this year, we plan to cooperate with more online platforms."