Korea's retail sector is expanding "video commerce," which uses video content as a sales channel. Video commerce is a shopping method that exposes products through short-form videos, live broadcasts, and creator content, and is designed so viewers discover and purchase products as they watch.
While online shopping in the past was closer to search-based shopping—typing a product name into a search bar and comparing prices—recently the center of gravity has shifted to discovery-based shopping, in which people find and buy needed products while watching content.
On the 12th, global video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, domestic platforms like Naver, and even retailers that grew out of TV home shopping are moving to strengthen video-based commerce. The strategy is to convert the trust between creators and viewers into brand loyalty and lower the purchase barrier through technical integration with content platforms.
The rise of video commerce is driven by changes in consumer behavior. Discovery-based shopping—finding products while consuming content—has emerged as the mainstream over search-based shopping, where people search for a specific product to buy.
Creator content is exerting a growing influence on purchasing decisions. According to marketing research firm Kantar, 73% of Korean viewers said they obtained information on YouTube that helped them decide what to buy, and among Generation Z viewers the figure reached 87%. However, this is less a change unique to YouTube than a shift in consumer behavior across video platforms overall.
◇ Home shopping also ramps up short-form and live
Approaches differ somewhat by platform. YouTube is focusing on tagging products in creator content such as videos and Shorts to link viewers to external online stores or partner purchase pages.
YouTube's shopping partner program has expanded its partners from Coupang, Olive Young, Zigzag, and ably to Kurly, Queenit, and Ohouse. AliExpress joined in March. The product lineup, once centered on fashion and beauty, is expanding to food, home, and overseas direct-purchase items.
Naver is growing video commerce around Shopping Live. Kakao is strengthening influencer curation based on Kakao Shopping Live. In August last year, Kakao launched a taste-based commerce platform "Showroom," allowing influencers to recommend and sell products by linking with external channels such as their social media (SNS).
The spread of video commerce is not limited to platform corporations. Traditional home shopping broadcasts concentrated product sales at fixed times, but recently the approach has shifted to repeatedly exposing short videos and live content within mobile apps to increase customer touchpoints.
CJ OnStyle highlighted strengthening video content focused on mobile live and short-form when it held its spring/summer Fashion Week this year. It expanded mobile live programming by about 60% compared with the previous fashion showcase event and announced plans to produce and distribute more than 5,000 fashion short-form videos this year.
Breaking away from the traditional method that emphasized product descriptions and price benefits, the strategy is to connect viewing enjoyment with purchasing by showing a brand's colors, silhouettes, and styling through short videos.
◇ Reliance on creators is a "double-edged sword"
Another pillar of video commerce is creators. In this structure, content goes beyond simple advertising to effectively serve as the storefront. For brands, it can create touchpoints closer to actual purchase conversion than search or banner ads, and creators can monetize the influence of their content. Platforms can secure both dwell time and transaction data.
The case of Queenit, a fashion platform for people in their 40s and 50s, also reflects this trend. Queenit adopted YouTube's shopping partner program in November last year. According to Queenit, after adopting the program, clicks via Queenit product tags in videos reached 460,000. As of Mar. 8, daily revenue had increased about 170 times compared with the first day of the program.
ably is successfully expanding its categories beyond its core area of fashion to life and food based on creator collaborations. Popular creators' videos tagged with ably products—such as "Zip Nawara Ddookddak," "Deuktem," and "Nado"—garnered high view counts and maximized purchase conversion effects. In February, ably's average daily order volume rose 25% compared with before the creator collaborations, and average daily GMV increased 35%.
Overseas, TikTok Shop is cited as a representative example of video commerce. Its hallmark is a one-stop commerce structure that connects discovery to purchase by combining short videos and live broadcasts with in-platform payment.
This shows that video commerce is expanding from domestic platform competition to global retail channel competition. In particular, for K-beauty, fashion, and food brands, video-based platforms can serve as a channel to simultaneously convey product usage and brand image to overseas consumers.
Recently, video commerce technology has been developing to move to the payment page via in-video product tags without breaking the viewing flow.
An industry official said, "Every time an extra checkout step is added, the purchase conversion rate plunges by 10% to 20%." Baymard Institute, an e-commerce UX research organization, analyzed that as of 2024 the average checkout flow has 5.1 steps and 11.3 input fields. It also found that 18% of consumers have abandoned an order due to a complicated checkout process.
However, video commerce is not a cure-all for the retail industry. The higher the platform dependence, the greater the risks from fees and algorithm changes. If a platform changes its exposure policy or product-tag criteria, the sales flow of participating sellers and brands can be affected.
Reliance on creators is also a challenge. While creator credibility is a key factor driving purchase conversion, if fatigue with advertorial content or controversy over exaggerated sales arises, brand images can be damaged.
An industry official said, "The success or failure of video commerce does not lie simply in producing a lot of video content," adding, "Platform tech integration, creator credibility, product competitiveness, and post-purchase customer care must work together for it to take root as a sustainable sales channel."