Prerequisites of establishing online market projects

Conventional markets that lost ground and were pushed out by large discount shopping malls are expected to be newly reborn to meet the changing purchasing styles of consumers.
In the last 3 years, Jeju has poured 39.7 billion and 16 million won into 15 projects for facility modernization to vitalize conventional markets. Now that it is regarded that the conventional markets are equipped with the necessary hardware, Jeju has made a decision to move its efforts towards modernizing  management.  
One of the projects, the establishment of online shopping malls and home pages for conventional markets, is obviously drawing lots of attention.  Jeju has a plan to push forward the establishment of an online presence for conventional markets, investing 153 million won in Jeju City and 94 million won in Seogwipo City. Jeju will also link 165 stores in 10 local conventional markets with websites of nationwide conventional markets.                
In a sense, this online project is to meet the demands of our current times. 
It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an internet age. 
However, the software sector is more important than the hardware sector in online businesses.  Whether it succeeds or not depends on how effectively the internet is used.
Furthermore, it has been pointed out that there are some problems with online market projects.  It is said merchants do not have a strong internet mindset because the average age of the merchants is quite high. If online market projects are administered only by government authorities, there will be other troubles such as information sharing between online and offline markets and the combining deliveries from different markets. Combining deliveries on the assumption of agreement among individual traders within their individual markets will not be easily accomplished.
First of all, to make the on-line market project more successful, market conditions and operation structure of wholesale and retail sales need to be established. It is also desirable to set a goal of web sites being matched with items and target markets. With the establishment of these web sites, it is no more than a “dead e-market” unless management and operation are not well integrated. For this reason, precise strategies need to be established ahead of commencing online market projects.

'재래시장 온라인화의 전제'

본지 2005년 5월 9일자 사설