Gmarket's JBP Drives Brand Growth in Korea, Signals Cross-Border Potential
Gmarket, a leading South Korean online marketplace, said on the 15th that its Joint Business Partnership program, or JBP, is delivering tangible results for participating brands, with some reporting sales as much as 2.5 times higher than before.
The JBP is a collaborative effort in which Gmarket and brand partners jointly set annual sales strategies and marketing plans, then execute promotions, advertising, and product planning to support brand growth.
Last year, about 1,300 brands joined the program. Of these, around 100 large brands saw transaction volumes on average 20 percent higher than those not in JBP, a boost attributed to exclusive JBP promotions and coordinated marketing.
Among notable cases, Ottogi, a well-known food brand, joined JBP last year and actively rolled out new products, pushing Gmarket sales for Ottogi up 87 percent year over year. A single All-in promotion tied to a focused marketing push produced four months’ worth of sales in one day.
DS Fashion, including Wishd and other labels, also posted strong gains, with sales rising about 152 percent year over year—more than 2.5 times the prior year—driven by a free returns promotion and joint viral marketing.
In the digital category, MSI benefited from online campaigns and offline tie-ins with Shinsegae’s Starfield shopping complexes, contributing to about a 28 percent rise in 2025 sales versus the previous year.
The program’s All-in one-day promotions also drew heavy traffic, with participating brands reporting average transaction values about 20-fold the year-ago period. Amore Pacific registered more than 40 times its previous month in one-day sales, while LG Household & Health Care saw roughly 3.4 times higher customer inflow, helping set a new one-day sales record for Gmarket.
Looking ahead, Gmarket plans to expand strategic partnerships, focusing on high-growth categories such as beauty, fashion, and food, and strengthening joint promotions and marketing collaboration to sustain sales gains and support brand development.
For international readers, the JBP highlights how e-commerce platforms in Korea are intensifying brand collaborations to accelerate growth, using focused promotions and cross-channel marketing. The approach may inform how U.S. brands and suppliers think about entering or expanding in the Korean market, manage cross-border supply chains, and coordinate marketing with digital platforms to reach Korean consumers.
Gmarket, based in Seoul, remains a central player in Korea’s online retail ecosystem, with its executive push toward deeper brand partnerships signaling continued evolution in platform-driven commerce. The results cited by Gmarket underscore the potential impact of these collaborations on global consumer trends, Western brands seeking entry into Asia, and the broader dynamics of cross-border e-commerce.